From jop at astro.columbia.edu Wed May 14 06:32:52 1997 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 06:32:52 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) the latest trinkets Message-ID: <199705141032.GAA16154@tristram.phys.columbia.edu> Dear CBAers, May 14, 1997. I wanted to mention two other targets thrust on us with short notice. "Var21 CrB" (sorry for the funny name, it might have a slightly better one that I dunno) is in superoutburst and the European CBAers are tracking its superhumps. Time for some help from other longitudes! Unfortunately I don't even have a position (somewhere around 1553+33) much less a chart for the guy. But could one of you that knows (maybe Tonny, Lasse, Rudolf) supply this info to "cba-news" (the e-mail exploder)? This sounds like a good target for the next 7- 10 days at least. XTE (X-ray Timing Explorer) is doing a long observation of FO Aqr spread over May 14-27, with maximum coverage during May 16-21. FO is an old friend and we definitely planned a long visit this year. I wasn't planning such an early start, but the X-ray observation changes that. I now think it's critical to nail this star just before morning twilight. No one will be able to get a long run, but by stacking short runs we can get a good pulse timing. Southerners will be able to do much better, because of the star's dec (-8) and more especially the Sun's (somewhere around +18). We have an official chart on the Website, and many of you have paper copies too. If you've never observed this star, you're in for a treat; its 21 minute pulse is the Sirens' Song for all CBAers. Now for the other guys. The campaign on AM CVn slowed down a bit but is still humming along enough to yield the basic scientific results. Keep it up. The campaign on EC1533-1403 could certainly use more attention; we're only getting about one hit every 15 days - enough (I think) to follow the slowly drifting period, but vastly insufficient to tackle the other interesting issues of fine structure in the period. Admittedly, we have conflicting targets now. Small-scopers will have a good time on Mister Var21 as long as it's bright, and on FO Aqr if they can reach that position (2217-08) before twilight (unlikely for Europe). AM CVn and EC1533 are your basic all-around good targets, but become somewhat tough in bright moonlight because their oscillations are weak (0.02-0.04 mag); also EC1533 is completely clobbered for 3 days every month by a direct lunar visit. You probably should prefer V795 Her and V603 Aql when the Moon gets really formidable. People with larger scopes can do AM CVn every night, and EC1533 nearly every night. I generally recommend that you adopt whichever of these stars you prefer and pound it hard. (But if you can observe all night, do 'em both!) Jonathan worked hard on the newsletter over the weekend, and did a really good job as usual. Send him kudos. You should get your paper copy in a few days; it's on the Website too. We have various things more or less available for the asking, including the new Downes- Webbink-Shara catalog. Actual sunshine peeking over the mountains here in Vermont. Rare, worth a mention. I promise never to think of New York City as a cloudy place again. joe P.S. Australites forsake not V803 Cen! (only not mentioned because of our population of biased northerners)  From jop at astro.columbia.edu Sat May 24 22:07:11 1997 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 22:07:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) May/June targets Message-ID: <199705250207.WAA12401@tristram.phys.columbia.edu> Dear CBAers, May 25, 1997. Our mini-campaign on AM CVn just ended. Haven't heard the word from Israel yet. Arizona and Maryland had about average weather and coverage. NORTHERN TARGETS We definitely want to keep going with AM CVn. Till mid-July or so. Two dwarf novae are superhumping away now and are of high interest: Var21 CrB and Var43 Her (new names: VW CrB and V844 Her; the first is CrB 1 in Downes et al., the second is uncatalogued but is at J2000 coords 16 25 01.7 +39 09 26). The outburst of Mister Var21 is probably about over, but Var43 is likely to be around for a while. For the second half of the night, I recommend DQ Her. Larger-telescope owners should consider RXJ1940.2-1025 (=V1432 Aql = Aql 1 in Downes et al.) as well as DQ Her. We also want to keep steady pressure on EC1533-1403 (now named HP Lib). SOUTHERN TARGETS The southern situation is: V803 Cen forever; V485 Cen for as long as it stays bright; and EC1533-1403 (=HP Lib = Lib 5 in Downes et al.) as a bright reliable old-faithful target. FO Aqr as soon as you can recover it in the morning sky. PITCHERS N STUFF As some of you know, we're getting a lot of publicity this year. I dunno exactly why, unless it's a domino effect after the first story (sort of like jail sentences). I suspect it may increase a lot at the AAS meeting in North Carolina, because we have been scheduled for a press conference, and have I think 3 oral papers on the menu too. I've been getting all kinds of prep material from the AAS. One thing they stress is pictures. You may recall we were also solicited for pictures by PASP, who were thinking of a CBA cover. We sent a couple things to PASP, but nothing really good in my opinion. So could you possibly take some really good color or B&W pictures (prints are best, around 5"x7" or thereabouts)? Pictures of your observatory are best I think. PASP doesn't want any people in it, but most newspapers/magazines might prefer a person in it, to give scale and warmth. Personally I think dogs, sandboxes, and oveturned tricycles would look great! If you do manage to get something, send it to me or Jonathan pronto. Lemme know and I'll send a FedEx account number for fastest delivery. More than half of our members are still just *potential* observers, not yet taking data. If that describes you, I'm still interested in description and pictures of your set-up; at the very least we want such stuff for our website. (But of course we won't use it until you really join up.) Everybody got their newsletter? And most of you should have received the Downes et al. atlas too. I look forward to seeing many of you at the meetings coming up next month. joe