(cba:news) stars new and old

[Joe Patterson]

Dear CBAers,

Well we got GREAT coverage of the HT Cam outburst.  It was extremely
brief, just 2 days, but we got coverage from CBAs-Finland, Crimea, East,
Connecticut, and Utah.  Pretty good on such short notice!  As many of you
know, the star free-fell back to 17th mag - took just one night.

So that's it, HT Cam is a wrap.  We'll get a pulse timing during the
upcoming MDM run.

T Pyx is a wrap too.  We have a very good pulse timing from AU/NZ
(Heathcoate, Rea, Allen) and SA (Monard)... it fits the quadratic
ephemeris (indicating a plunge toward self-destruction) very well, and
therefore can be basically be shelved for another year.

BZ Cam continues to be a fine target for northern scopes.

Let's start a campaign on BG CMi, a good target for all hemispheres (at
+10 degrees)  We did this six years ago and netted only a very good study
of the 15 minute pulse.  We really want to do a proper search for
superhumps.  And we have a much better network now, with
global distribution (*really* global when Uzbekistan cranks up to full
speed).  It's a perfect time of year - let 'er rip!

So: delete HT Cam, and UV Gem (also returned to quiescence)
delete T Pyx
lower nsv 10934 in priority slightly - we'd like to get the period in
*quiescence*, but is it in quiescence yet?  any of you aussies know?

I'm about to go travelling again - a 2-week observing run.  Kinda anxious
about it.  It's been a mighty rough week for astronomy.


    joe