From jk at cbastro.org Fri Nov 8 16:34:19 1996 From: jk at cbastro.org (Jonathan Kemp) Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 16:34:19 -0500 (EST) Subject: (cba:news) CBA Web Site Debut (fwd) Message-ID: Just thought I'd let you know that I sent out the following message to VSNET a few moments ago regarding the new CBA web site... Comments welcome! jonathan -- We'd like to announce the debut of the web site for the Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA). It can be found at: https://cbastro.org/ The CBA is a group of amateur and professional astronomers (mostly amateur) collaborating to study the light curves of variable stars. Mostly we study cataclysmic variables, and mostly we do so with "time-series" photometry (successive measurements over a few-hour interval, the longer the better). We are very interested in collaborating with observers scattered around the world, since many timescales of interest (few hours to a few days) tend to be confounded by the nasty effects of Earth rotation. Most CBA stations have CCDs and small (~25 cm) telescopes, although there are also photoelectric photometers and larger (~1 m) telescopes in our midst. At the web site you'll find more information on: * the history and mission of the CBA: who we are and what we do * news pertaining to recent events and findings regarding CVs (especially SU UMa and DQ Her stars) and our CBA newsletter * finding charts and observing strategies for stars in our program * lists and texts of CBA publications, and references especially useful to observers * links to other astronomy sites of interest. For those without World Wide Web access, most of the information at the web site can be retrieved by anonymous FTP to tristram.phys.columbia.edu in /pub/cba/. Please drop by our new site if you have a few spare moments. We welcome any comments or questions you have either about the web site or about the stars and subjects that interest us! We can be reached at cba at astro.columbia.edu. Jonathan Kemp Center for Backyard Astrophysics and Department of Astronomy, Columbia University jk at cbastro.org From jop at astro.columbia.edu Fri Nov 15 15:40:55 1996 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Fri, 15 Nov 96 15:40:55 EST Subject: (cba:news) november stars Message-ID: <9611152040.AA10390@carmen.phys.columbia.edu> Hi CBAers, 15 Nov 1996 About to leave for the weekend. More accurately, about to go lead a group to Harriman Observatory in 15-degree (F) weather. Lasse will not be impressed but the night will be awfully raw I'm sure. Anyway, I wanted to make a few comments about target selection these days. RW Tri and FY Per are good choices for the smaller telescopes. We still don't have any good streak going, but they'll be around for a while, and see if you can service these most friendly stars. Long runs best of course, as (nearly) always. PX And = And 1 = PG0027+26 will remain our top priority object for several weeks. We've gotten a little bit of high-quality data, which showed nice eclipses, and good promise (no guarantees though) of permanent superhumps. We love the eclipsers because if these stars do superhump, we can use the eclipse shape to decipher the light distribution of the superhumping source (at least measure how centrally condensed it is). For the terminal australites, the two stars to watch closely are AH Eri (if it ever erupts) and RR Pic. We expect to be studying RR Pic for months starting now - get us off to a rousing start! Nice and bright, a star for everyone who can cope with the impressive -60 degree declination. I'll put together a full newsletter over the next 10 d or so, before Jonathan leaves for Chile on a long run. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Wed Nov 20 13:54:20 1996 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Wed, 20 Nov 96 13:54:20 EST Subject: (cba:news) november delight Message-ID: <9611201854.AA29639@carmen.phys.columbia.edu> Hi CBAers, Nov. 20, 1996. Some very fine data on PX And = And 1 appearing on my computer screen many mornings! A full newsletter will be ready in just a few days, but in the meantime I wanted everyone to know that this star has been an absolute winner. Negative superhumps, wobble periods, fine eclipses. I hope you'll follow it into its deepest lair and drag every last secret out of it. The observing season is getting kinda late, so I wanted to clue you on this ASAP. We like the bright comparison star 3 arcmin north of the variable. The star is a bit faint, around 15.3 I think, so it's tough for the smallest-telescope observers out there. FY Per and RW Tri would be better targets for the smallest scopes and lesser-quality nights. joe From jk at cbastro.org Sun Nov 24 21:47:24 1996 From: jk at cbastro.org (Jonathan Kemp) Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 21:47:24 -0500 (EST) Subject: (cba:news) newsletter and charts Message-ID: CBAers & Friends, The new CBA newsletter is ready and you can find it through our web site (https://cbastro.org/) or through our anonymous FTP site (tristram.phys.columbia.edu/pub/cba/). If you're getting this, a paper copy of the newsletter will shortly follow. You'll find lots of tidbits about CBA observation and research over the past year, targets for upcoming campaigns, as well as other fun stuff. In addition to the newsletter, you'll also get a collection of finding charts for objects high on our priority list for the current observing season. We've now got about two dozen or so charts (with suggested comparison stars denoted), all of which can be accessed by web or FTP. I've included a few more folks in this list (current distribution listed below) who are either potential collaborators or just interested parties. If you ever want to be removed from the list, just drop me a note and I'll take you off. Cheers, Jonathan (CBA-NY) -- alon at wise.tau.ac.il - Alon Retter astroman at voyager.co.nz - Stan Walker bianco at asimt0.mt.asi.it - Giuseppe Bianco captain at braeside.org - Robert Fried ch at astro.keele.ac.uk - Coel Hellier chaswell at star.maps.susx.ac.uk - Carole Haswell comsoft at primenet.com - David Harvey dataman at exploration.gsfc.nasa.gov - David Skillman dharvey at as.arizona.edu - David Harvey dibnob at saao.ac.za - David Buckley dod at uctvax.uct.ac.za - Darragh O'Donoghue gjg at aaocbn3.aao.gov.au - Gordon Garradd gp at star.sr.bham.ac.uk - Gary Poyner haswell at astro.columbia.edu - Carole Haswell jk at cbastro.org - Jonathan Kemp jop at astro.columbia.edu - Joseph Patterson lagmonar at csir.co.za - Berto Monard ltj at tt.dk - Lasse Jensen mike at bulwark1.ic.gc.ca - Mike Dusseault nogami at kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp - Daisaku Nogami offutt at galileo.apo.nmsu.edu - Warren Offutt pfg00474 at niftyserve.or.jp - Seiichiro Kiyota pmcgee at physics.adelaide.edu.au - Paddy McGee pwar022 at phy.auckland.ac.nz - Paul Warhurst ringwald at astro.psu.edu - Frederick Ringwald skiyota at abr.affrc.go.jp - Seiichiro Kiyota tauguste at eso.org - Thomas Augusteijn thorsten at dartmouth.edu - John Thorstensen tkato at kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp - Taichi Kato tmca at cfht.hawaii.edu - Timothy Abbott tvanmuns at innet.be - Tonny Vanmunster