(cba:news) ty erupts at last

[Joe Patterson]

Dear CBAers,                                           Dec. 29, 1997.

Finally our buddy TY Psc has jumped into superoutburst, and Jonathan
found the expected superhumps blazing away at 0.25 mag amplitude last
night.  At V=12.2, the star is a very peachy target for small-scopers.
And should remain so until the Moon interferes in about 10 days.  The
exact 2000 coords are 1h 25m 39.35s +32d 23m 10s.  We're using a
V=13.25 mag comp star located 0.27 arcmin W and 2.85 arcmin S from
the variable.  You'll like this one, the light curve is a beauty!

The reason I'm so eager for TY Psc is that it's basically the last of
the bright northern SU UMa stars without a known precise superhump
period.  Not counting the very rare erupters, which can be wished for
but not really planned for, and a few miscellaneous stars which are not
known to possess, but might turn out to possess, the standard SU UMa
credentials.

So that's a great evening target for most stations.  TT Ari and V592
Cas also continue to hump away, and scattered hump timings through the
rest of the observing season are needed (say a 3 hr observation once a
week).

The only other development is that I'd like to take Tau 2 off the menu.
Cap'n Bob got three straight nights on it, and it was disappointing.
Tau 1 = V1062 Tau, on the other hand, looks to be very interesting.
Warren Offutt's data showed the 59 min signal very plainly, so let's
fire away on this star.  Nicely placed in eastern Taurus.  There's also
an alleged 10 hr signal, so very long runs would be nice.  The other
all-night object is CN Ori at quiescence; about 15.7 but with a
very large hump.

Then there's RZ LMi and DI UMa whenever they erupt, which is very
often.  Up in the 14s and quite feasible for borealites.  Australites
keep the faith on AH Men, RR Pic, and CN Ori.

Warren and Stan Walker report good results with Rudolf Novak's MuniDos
reduction program for time-series photometry in a DOS-friendly setting.
That might be of much interest out there, since I know many of you are
still looking for a good data reduction pipeline.


        joe