(cba:news) fashionable stars for aug/sep

Joe Patterson jop at astro.columbia.edu
Fri Aug 21 10:53:09 EDT 1998


Dear CBAers,                                              8/21/98

I'm about to leave for "Starfest".  Dunno exactly what it is, but
appears to be a mass gathering of astronomers in the northern woodlands
of Ontario.  Sounds like fun.  Maybe some CBAers lurk in those sylvan
regions.

We're still going full-bore on UU Aquarii and V1432 Aql (RX1940-10).
The former is an eclipsing SW Sex star - we've found that many of them,
and quite possibly all, have negative superhumps.  So we want to keep
fishing for 'em.  In addition, the eclipsers among them give the
opportunity to map the distribution of light across the disk, as a
function of precession phase.  That should reveal the varying shape
of the disk.

Both targets are near-equatorial, and the former is probably bright
enough for all.  Long runs are greatly preferred, as usual.

Jerry Gunn and Dave Harvey have been watching FO Aquarii, that's a
relief.  But nobody is watching AO Piscium, which I think is as good
a target (and is considerably more desperate).  Won't someone adopt
this orphan?

And in the northern morning sky, let's welcome TT Ari and V592 Cas.
In the (far) south, AH Men.  Old pals come back.

Oh, yeah:
(1) Some new wrinkles on the web page.  A way for you to request
materials, and for us to keep track of your equipment.  (We get toys
occasionally.)
(2) Rumored article on CBA in October Sky and Tel.  Haven't seen it
though.


                  joe



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