October stars

From: Joe Patterson <*jop_at_astro.columbia.edu*> Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 05:00:27 -0400 (EDT) · jop_at_astro.columbia.edu

Dear CBAers,

About to go off to an Accreting-Compact-Star meeting - the "first annual"
New England regional meeting. Strange that such an obviously good idea has
been so slow to take root.

That blazing Moon is finally on the wane, and it's time to blow the dust
off the telescope.  Here's how we stand:

1. RZ Gru is back to normal.  Not much of a dip. Done for the year, or
   longer.

2. Cep 1 isn't attracting much interest. Off the list for time series. But
   could you monitor it for eruptions?  If it erupts, it's basically the
   biggest news in the history of CV science.

3. LD 317 is getting some attention, but not yet enough to form useful
   long time series.  Could you beat heavily on this star?  It's "And" in
   the Downes catalogue (2344+43).

4. HS 2331+3905 needs lots of attention too.  Tougher at 16.5, but the
   light curve is quite rewarding.  Another star never known to erupt -
   although it must!  So if you find it in eruption, save some time by
   sending a self-addressed mailer to the Nobel Prize Committee... and
   clear a spot on your shelf for the Prize - right next to your CBA
   coffee mug.

5. Pretty much same situation for BW Scl (and the Nobel Committee might
   favor the southerners if they are equal-opportunity minded).  Nice
   orbital light curve, we need the new season to top off a long study...
   and sure to erupt one of these decades, though no eruption ever seen.

That's a program with a lot of scientific meat!  For brighter and
semi-cloudy time, TT Ari beckons from both hemispheres (dec=+15). Unlike
RZ Gru, it is definitely on the wane (0.7 mag drop so far).  Still plenty
bright to redeem those marginal nights.

Now off to catch that plane.

Quite a large paper just published by PASP (Nov), although they won't
admit it yet.  Jonathan is sending preprints to all authors, and you can
also download the pdf file from astro-ph.  It's one of the two goals of my
sabbatical year, and I'm pretty happy about it.  I think it also
illustrates well the power of collaborative multisite light curves.

joe