From jop at astro.columbia.edu Wed Sep 10 11:46:09 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 11:46:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) stars for the equinox Message-ID: <200309101546.h8AFk9K26969@fidelio.phys.columbia.edu> Dear CBAers, Well, the 20-star paper was accepted and slated for the November PASP. Yum yum, it cleans lots of stars off our proverbial plate. You can find the pdf version on our homepage. I'm grinding away on a followup paper with more stars, and more authors. But school has started up again, so not quite as much time for research now. The rains have stopped too, with a similar negative effect on research time (nuthin' like rain in the window to keep you at your desk!). Plus a looming grant proposal deadline. Time to quite on several stars. V794 Aquilae. Lots of coverage on this star, and we may well extract the period eventually... but so far it hasn't jumped outa the computer and said boo. Let's put it aside for winter-time rumination. HL Aqr. As was true three years ago, this star has only a very low- amplitude variation. When I first studied it in 1991, it was about 0.06 mag. We could detect that with no great difficulty. However, 3.3 hour variations at significantly lower amplitude become very hard for us, with worries about differential extinction and the problem in getting long runs on equatorial stars. I'm going to spend a few days on this now... so I might jump up and say "back to the telescope". But for now I think we should take it off the menu. RZ Gru. Hold the phone on that one. I'm gonna spend one more day on it. Looks like another star with excellent upper limits only. Some indication of a very long period... very naughty. So it's pretty much a new menu... Let's give VY Scl a top priority. This is Paul Warhurst's favorite star (I think). A decent recommendation in itself. But it's also high time for the world to learn its orbital period - it's the prototype for a whole class of CVs, and we're still wallowing in ignorance re the period(s). Nicely placed for very long coverage - plus some short North American coverage to fill in gaps. A good northern target is OR And. This is one of the "Kitt Peak Downes" survey stars, for which very little is known despite decent brightness (14.5). We should be able to hammer it. Plus V592 Cas. Time to revisit that old friend. Beautifully placed for long runs in the Sep-Oct sky, bright enough to laugh off the assaults of moonlight. And the equatorial stars AO Psc and FO Aqr remain peachy stars from all hemispheres! joe  From jop at astro.columbia.edu Fri Sep 12 17:40:36 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 17:40:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) OR AND Message-ID: The first two nights of data on this confused convolver of conjunctions came roaring in (from Jerry Foote). Off the screen leapt a strong signal at 2.8 hours. I dunno if this is orbital, some flavor of superhump, or what... but the star is bright and well-placed, and definitely a great target for the next coupla months. Especially from exotic longitudes - but really for all northerners! joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Fri Sep 12 17:49:32 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 17:49:32 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) comp star Message-ID: Oh, I forgot. Jerry's using GSC 3631:0235 as a comp star. Good choice if available to you, about 0.6 mag brighter than OR And in V-ish light. A different comp is usually OK, but use the same one every night, and let me know which one it is. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Thu Sep 18 14:14:16 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 14:14:16 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) V585 Lyrae! Message-ID: Hi CBAers, Well, Tom's announcement of humps in this star may portend a great deal. As some of you know, this star has been bright for some time, at least 5 days, with no appreciable short-term variability. (I think Tonny posted some of those null reports to cba-news.) Of course, this usually means the star is a dud... a long-period star quite bashful about revealing secrets to photometrists. But the most interesting dwarf novae uncage their superhumps after quite a long time, and V585 Lyr appears to be in that class. There's a decent chance that this signifies a weak secondary - undermassive compared to the usual 0.1 Mo associated with this Porb. That was demonstrably the case in a few other dwarf novae - including WZ Sge - and is quite RARE. So this star, despite unfavorable seasonal timing, rockets to the top of the priority list! Nobody can get it for very long, but we have a good chance of patching together short runs around the world to decipher the basic period structure. Follow it down into a tree. Here are exact coords: 19 13 58.43 +40 44 09 V585 Lyr... welcome to the family. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Tue Sep 23 08:30:46 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 08:30:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) v551 sgr! Message-ID: Dear CBAers, V551 Sgr, a WZ Sge-class suspect for the last thirty years, has finally popped into superoutburst, as shown by the superhumps detected by Roland Santallo (of Tahiti). This is a GRAND target for the australites! The seasonal timing ain't perfect, but with a good longitude spread, we should be able to solve for the basic period structure. Definitely top priority in the southern sky! 18 00 56.5 -34 35 45 Strike while the iron is hot! VY Scl would be a good after-Sagittarius target. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Sat Sep 27 21:15:36 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2003 21:15:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) Humps in RU Hor! Message-ID: Dear CBAers, A day or so ago, Rod Stubbings helped to dispel rumors that he occasionally sleeps... when he found RU Hor in a bright outburst. An hour ago Greg Bolt sent the first night's coverage, showing strong superhumps. So welcome this new addition to the SU UMa family! You all know the routine. A great southern target after V551 Sgr sets. Might be a good idea to suspend VY Scl for a little while to take advantage of this rare outburst. In northern skies, I'm inclined to ring down the curtain on V585 Lyr. The coverage has been WONDERFUL! Best targets in the evening sky now are OR And and LS Peg. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Tue Sep 30 17:40:24 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 17:40:24 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) Stars for October Message-ID: Dear CBAers, Time for some serious changes in the vault of heaven. Mainly in the north. There are a few stars still decently placed in the evening sky, and in the 14-15 mag range, which are good superhump candidates. OR And performed very well with a signal at 0.135 d, deduced (mainly) from the data sent by Major Tom, Cap'n Bob, and Civilians Jerry and Lew. Now we'll have to wait and see what the spectroscopy reveals - which should be a certifiable Porb (whereas the photometric period could be of orbital or superhump origin). I think we have enough now on OR And. In the last message I resurrected LS Peg. Sorry to change my mind on this one... but the first few nights looked pretty consistent with last year's coverage (a pretty negative superhump), and since that coverage was so good, I'm inclined to not try again. Too many other goodies in the evening sky. In the early evening, there's V1101 Aql. At 2013+15, I'm hoping that some of the southerners can do it too. It's 14-15 and seems to have a 3-4 hour period. Practically a virgin star, worth a special effort and likely to resist the ravages of moonlight. Then there's the star known as Cyg6 in the Downes catalog. Also known as KPD 2032+50, this is the only remaining star in the Downes UV-bright survey with an unknown orbital period. After we learn Porb, there is a lot we can do with this survey. Let's erase this blot on humanity's knowledge. Coords 20 34 14.54 +50 48 6.2 Then there's DI Lac, which has now become a more interesting target... basically not observed in 40 years. In the sky practically all night. Those are the northern big shots for early October. In the south, I hear that V551 Sgr is getting a bit faint. Worth covering for a few more days, if you can get quality data. RU Hor is a very fine choice: still bright, still superhumping, and still very desirous of more coverage. And AO Psc and FO Aqr... very nice pulse-timers, invulnerable to moonlight except when the Moon actually comes close (which it does for 2-3 days a month). joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Tue Sep 30 19:00:38 2003 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 19:00:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: (cba:news) that would be cyg 1... Message-ID: not cyg 6 as I erroneously called it. Definitely Cyg 1, long live it... at least until it gets a better name. joe