From jop at astro.columbia.edu Tue Dec 18 09:46:44 2001 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 09:46:44 -0500 (EST) Subject: (cba:news) December stars Message-ID: Dear CBAers, Well I am trying hard to finish off the WZ Sagittae paper this week. I doubt I'll make it but it'll be a valiant effort... and a release from WZ Sge jail. (Apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time around.) Final exams this week, then a respite for a few weeks. In theory. John Thorstensen is writing up the quite spectacular results from RX2329+06, and in a few weeks I'll write a short photometry paper to accompany. What a precious little gem that star is... we definitely want to continue the coverage on it another month, to sharpen our knowledge of the period (around 64 minutes) and allow us to extend it into the next observing season. Thanks to the photometry team on this guy (krajci, skillman, fried, starkey, beshore, foote, vanmunster, oksanen, rea). We're about to wrap up BW Scl. Recently only Bob Rea has managed to get good data - but it looks pretty good despite the faintness (~17). Bob, could you keep it up until around Jan 1? Then we'll give it up. The new target is BK Lyn. This is a decently bright star, at about 14.5, and has flashed some very potent superhumps in past years (well... the 2 years of decent coverage anyway). Plus, Cindy Taylor started a spectroscopic run on it last night at Kitt Peak, to look for the line-profile variations that should accompany superhumps. At 0917+34, it's not an early-evening object... but nail it as soon as it pops over those eastern trees. Before BK Lyn, FS Aur and TT Ari are the northern stars du jour. I recommend continued harassment of FS Aur until it yields its secrets. Tom Krajci found a quite remarkable outburst of it 2 weeks ago, in which it flashed some new rapid oscillations. It's definitely Auriga season - and hey, we could use some big-time help from Europe and Asia on this! Down south, I still hunger to know about EC05114-7955 (or EC23593-6724 if that's obstructed). You Kiwis must be having a lot of fun this summer... and you can atone for it with some really beautiful light curves. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Sun Dec 23 21:40:43 2001 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 21:40:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: (cba:news) RZ LMi erupts Message-ID: Dear CBAers, Well, Gary Poyner reported RZ LMi at 13.9 last night, very likely a superoutburst (judging from the brightness and the time since the last one). Even though this star utterly conflicts with BK Lyn, it belongs right there with BK Lyn in priority (tops in the after 10 p.m. category). There are several reasons we want to really focus on this star: (1) Porb still hasn't been measured, and it's an important one; (2) In a previous year the superhumps appeared to remember phase from one superoutburst to the next, muy interesante. (3) As the most frantic of the H-rich dwarf novae, RZ LMi gives the maximum leverage per night invested - to study the detailed properties of superhumps (in other words, the show's beginning, middle, and end can be conveniently covered) Still, BK Lyn may be the better target for the next 3 days, when Cindy Taylor will be covering it with spectroscopy. If you're feeling virtuous, do 'em both! Otherwise select one and stick with it - both will reward your effort. By the way it's best to start on 'em as soon as you can get 'em, even if that means ignoring or cutting short FS Aur. These are time-critical observations, and FS can wait a bit. Anyone doing EC0511-79 down south? By the way, we're gearing up for a TX Col campaign in early January, which Dave Buckley will coordinate from South Africa. That's a mighty good one too (now - and then it will be el primo in early January). We'll have a chart up in a few days, but you can find one in the on-line ("living") Downes-Shara CV catalog. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Wed Dec 26 08:57:02 2001 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 08:57:02 -0500 (EST) Subject: (cba:news) RX2329+06 rising Message-ID: Our fishy and flashy new toy of the season, rx2329+06, has just risen again - as many of you already know. Probably about 13-14 mag right now. A wonderful first object of the night, for northerners anyway. This could be a short outburst, the first ever seen from this crazy star. Or it could be the beginning of a long one, and we've never seen the full glory of a long one either (just the tail end of the one that Patrick Schmeer caught in November). Toss the wrapping paper, take that camera out of its gift box, and slap it on the nearest telescope! The usual drill: long time series in unfiltered light. When the scope runs into a tree, you're done. joe and don't forget the rest of the night. some really delightful data appeared under my tree yesterday! From jk at cbastro.org Sat Dec 29 21:47:23 2001 From: jk at cbastro.org (Jonathan Kemp) Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 16:47:23 -1000 (HST) Subject: (cba:news) HT Cam! In-Reply-To: <200112300150.KAA02819@ceres.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp> Message-ID: Hi CBAers, For those of you who don't know yet, HT Cam was just found in (super?)outburst (approximately 12th mag, by H. Itoh of Tokyo). Since RZ LMi and RX 2329+06 unfortunately faded rapidly and aren't of interest any more, HT Cam should now be the top-priority object! We've been following it for the past week from Kitt Peak with the MDM 2.4-meter telescope but, unfortunately, we have been clouded out last night and tonight. Coordinates and chart are to be found at the CBA web site. Cheers, Jonathan CBA Hilo From jop at astro.columbia.edu Sun Dec 30 12:54:50 2001 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 12:54:50 -0500 (EST) Subject: (cba:news) HT Cam, flash in the pan? Message-ID: (gold mining analogy) Lotta clouds in the USA last night, so only reported observation so far is Jonathan's through heavy cloud cover at Kitt Peak. It showed the star declining very rapidly, about 0.2 mag per hour. The 8.5 minute and 86 minute periods were powerfully seen, mighty interesting in itself. But at that decline rate, the star will be near quiescence tonight... so *probably* the star should disappear from the CBA world until it manages an actual super, if it ever does (none observed so far in history). Keep up the vigil on other targets. I'm inclined to ring down the curtain on RX2329+06, though... getting just too late in the season. And for you Australites, it's time to get TX Col onto center stage. Dave, can you send the exact particulars of your campaign? joe