(cba:news) mid-june stars

[Joe Patterson]

Dear CBAers,

Olde Whiteface has rolled around again, and our menu gets a little
restricted this time of month.  Here goes...

It's time to retire RX1643+48 (Her) for the year.  The coverage has been
very, very good - good enough to specify any periods present in the light
curve.  As with the previous year's coverage, the dominant signal is the
1000 second quasi-periodic oscillation - and other signals are pretty
subtle by comparison.  Likewise, it's time to retire HP Lib; it looks like
the coverage is sufficient to track Porb - as well as the more obvious
P(superhump) - so that's enough reward for the year!

Likewise EX Hya. Great coverage - but the season's over.

A good northern target now is V1316 Cyg.  As Tom says, it's now in
superoutburst, and we've never found the superhumps before. Time to
spring into action.

A good equatorial target is RX1730-05 (Oph).  But make sure you use a
short integration time; the key period is 128 s, presumably the spin
period of the white dwarf.  The other good equatorial target is V603
Aql; at V=11.6, this is definitely the easy target for all-longitude,
all-latitude, all-scope coverage.

For short morning observations (both hemispheres, but especially
southern), try AO Psc and FO Aqr - to measure the long-term ephemerides
of the rapid pulsations.

And keep V617 Sgr and V1223 Sgr on the menu.  These are still prime
southern objects.

Last month's meeting went beautifully.  I was really thrilled with the
outcome - the photometry talks were excellent, and the prospects for CBA
growth seem awfully promising since many new people expressed interest.
It'll take me a month to write 'em all... but I'm very excited about
the CBA in the year ahead!


                            Joe