(cba:news) Fwd: T Pyx observing campaign

[Joe Patterson]

Dear CBAers,

I'm battling a bad flu this week, which explains my silence re T Pyx. 
But the season is not so bad, and since it has been a 45-year wait, this 
will be likely be our only chance to study this fascinating star in 
outburst.  Jonathan, could you authorize Brad to use cba-news (and I 
believe all recipients can use cba-chat).  Brad can advise more 
specifically... but some general wisdom re bright-star photometry is:

* use a V filter if you have one, and short exposures;
* consider using a soft focus (out of focus) image as this will combat 
saturation;
* trade notes re comparison-star selection (somebody's likely to 
discover the best choice out there); my guess is that 
multiple-comparison-star approach - which some of you use - is not a 
wise choice at all.

I'm still not thinking - or typing! - all that well, so your own common 
sense should trump what I've said.  It's an exciting opportunity!

joe



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: T Pyx observing campaign
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:52:19 -0500
From: Brad Schaefer <bradschaefer at mac.com>
To: jop at astro.columbia.edu

Hi;
	With this wonderful opportunity, I would like to have a campaign to
observe T Pyx with fast photometry with extensive coverage.  The idea
would be to repeat our extreme success with U Sco, where our 37,000
magnitudes covered the entire eruption with an average of one
magnitude every 2.6 minutes.  So I propose to ask CBA people to help
by putting out an appeal on the CBA email exploder.  But I think it
best to ask you for whether this use of your email exploder is OK.

Cheers,
Brad