(cba:news) The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen

[Joe Patterson]

Dear CBAers,

And what a good week it was.  I finished analyzing the very dense 1999
data on V709 Cas, as well as AO Psc.  Kudos to Cap'n Bob, Daves East and
West, Lasse and Tonny for most of this work.  Allen Shafter and Stan
Walker contributed some critical data too.

V709 Cas has also shown up with a superhump - negative variety, displaced
by 4.3% from Porb.  A wispy thing, just 0.05 mag full amplitude.  This is
just barely above the detection limit for P~5.3 hr and 300 hours of data
(in the presence of 0.2 mag flickering).  But you can take it to the
proverbial bank. So: positive for AO, negative for V709.
Equal-opportunity superhumps.

Did the 313 s pulse timing study too, over the four years since Skillman's
discovery.  Very stable, with a little dP/dt of 10**-11.  Just the way
I like 'em.

Cassiopeia is still pretty well placed for us borealites.  So pay no
attention to my previous dismissal, and bring the star back for an encore.
Long, long runs will allow us to track this new delight for another month
or so - with the Moon getting outa the way, now's the time to spring into
action.

Let's *cancel* HV And and FY Per; they were very disappointing.  It's a
struggle; only the interesting survive.  Tau 2, U Gem, V405 Aur, and IP
Peg are hanging in there.

Having found all these wonderful slow wiggles in two DQ Her stars, we're
certainly going to make a similar big effort in V405 Aur.  I just
wanted to log a few more weeks on V709 Cas first.

Nuthin' like a school vacation!


           joe