(cba:news) VX For down, and TT Ari ever so up

Joe Patterson jop at astro.columbia.edu
Fri Oct 23 08:41:48 EDT 2009


Dear CBAers,

I think VX For has about finished its show.  Maybe it has one more echo 
ahead of it, but it'll be a big-scope target from now on.

As some of you know, TT Ari has been sensational, flashing an entirely 
unexpected periodic or quasiperiodic signal of enormous amplitude (1.4 
mag), and P~0.38 d.  This is certainly something new to the world of 
(human knowledge of) TT Ari, and quite possibly to CVs generally.  We 
can track it - the star's bright enough, equatorial enough (sort of), 
and sufficiently well-placed in the sky to permit a really close watch.
I'll send the merged light curve so far to campaigners, and say more 
tomorrow about observing styles (although continuous V - preferably - or 
clear monitoring is OK).

We have an Asia-Pacific gap for northern targets, as usual, and it would
be really good if AU/NZ observers helped us fill this gap.  Photometric 
precision and length of run is not so important when you're mainly 
filling a gap.

More tomorrow, or tonight.

joe



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