From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Sat Dec  5 04:39:45 2009
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:39:45 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) [Fwd: [vsnet-alert 11707] SDSS J012940.05+384210.4
	rebrightening]
Message-ID: <4B1A2A61.8050501@astro.columbia.edu>

The brightening of a few days ago proved to be a "false alarm" - in the 
sense that the outburst quickly decayed away (like a normal outburst of 
an ultrashort period dwarf nova).  But a second rise like this often 
signals a true superoutburst - so this is a mighty interesting star to 
target for time-series observation!

joe

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [vsnet-alert 11707] SDSS J012940.05+384210.4 rebrightening
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 20:48:55 +0900
From: Hiroyuki Maehara <maehara at kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
To: vsnet-alert at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp, 
vsnet-campaign-dn at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp, 
vsnet-newvar at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp, 
vsnet-outburst at ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
CC: cvnet-outburst at yahoogroups.com
References: <E1NEvDs-0004oU-8M at mars.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp> 
<20091130110602.GL63048%mira at cetus-net.org>

SDSSJ012940.05+384210.4 is rebrightening.

SDSSJ012940.05+384210.4 20091201.39591 164C     Mhh.VSOLJ
SDSSJ012940.05+384210.4 20091202.40509 <176C    Mhh.VSOLJ
SDSSJ012940.05+384210.4 20091204.43115 152C     Mhh.VSOLJ



From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Thu Dec 17 18:08:41 2009
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:08:41 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) December targets, volume 1
Message-ID: <4B2AB9F9.8000106@astro.columbia.edu>

Dear CBAers,

Having just escaped my last exam, and having a sabbatical year ahead, 
I'm anxious to get back to CV studies on a more full-time!  More 
extensive comments late tonight (I still have to grade the 60 exams).
A coupla things:

1. TT Ari. Lots to say there.  The short version: we only need to keep 
hitting to document the general history, not detailed period-finding 
which ia already done so well!

2. XSS0056+45.  Definitely.  Still some life left in its observing 
season... and LONG runs are definitely wanted, because the period 
structure is quite, quite intricate.

3. KR Aur.  Can anyone do this?  It's 19th magnitude, but it would be 
lovely to know if it has a strong orbital signal.  The example of TT Ari 
suggests that it might.  Anyway, this could be good for the real 
swashbucklers among you.

4. FS Aur.  I have a paper ready to go on this star... BUT I'd love to 
get a few more weeks on it (i.e. a 2009 point) for the long-term 
tracking of the 3.5 hour signal.

5.  Many DQ Her stars suitable for coverage.  BG CMi is done for a few 
months or more, but Aur (RX0636+35) and Gem (RX0704+26) are tempting -
as are PQ Gem and Swift 0732-13.  Three-hour runs generally get the job 
done on these guys.

MOre tonight!

joe


From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Fri Dec 18 05:31:00 2009
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:31:00 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) KR Aur, and Ursa Magna
In-Reply-To: <20091218042626.4D36E1B50B@carrera.xpressweb.com>
References: <20091218042626.4D36E1B50B@carrera.xpressweb.com>
Message-ID: <4B2B59E4.9090509@astro.columbia.edu>

18.4, 18.8, and an earlier report estimated 19.4. Sounds like it's 
auditioning for the role of the next TT Ari.  If I could find someone to 
bet with (my wife is strangely uninterested), I'd wager the light curve 
looks like what we've been staring at for the last few months.

More then a little speculative!  But until the first long, flat light 
curve shows up, I'll indulge my fantasy.  There is, you see, this 
"controversy" now over whether VY Scl stars become very luminous 
supersoft X-ray sources at quiescence.  Personally I think it's merely 
the result of one bad paper, which attracted much attention and was 
cited approvingly many times... but the existence of a reflection effect 
(off the orbiting secondary) allows one to MEASURE the bolometric 
luminosity of the WD (and, I expect, put the silly business to rest).

BTW just to add to Jerry's note on the SAS conference at Big Bear:

I have most of May reserved on the 1.3 m MDM telescope (on Kitt Peak),
and a week on the 2.4 m at the end.  We'd especially love to have good 
foreign representation at Big Bear, so I'll sweeten the deal for the 
internationals by adding a few nights of observing at Kitt Peak.  We 
won't let you look for the Easter bunny... but other than that, you can 
use the telescope any way you want (pretty pictures as well as CVs).  No 
telescope operators, authority figures, similar intrusions to get in the 
way.  Decent living quarters, so you can likely stay there.  I hope 
that'll lure some extra internationals.  If you time your visit with my 
travel schedule, you can probably add the extra travel leg at no cost 
(I'll rent a van to travel Tucson->Big Bear and back).

These SAS meetings - especially if you also attend the consecutively 
scheduled Riverside ATM conference a few miles away - remind me of my 
first visit to Toyland a few weeks before Christmas.  American 
Astronomical Society meetings are pretty similar, though there's not a 
lot of toys to buy (unless you have tends of millions of USD).  One of 
those is scheduled for Boston in May 2011; I believe that one coincides 
with a AAVSO meeting, and will include a special session on 
professional-amateur collaboration. We'll invade that conference too.

joe


Jerry Foote wrote:
> Tom,
> 
> I am measuring it at 18.8. The clouds have cleared here so I will stay on it
> until 12:30 UT. Running in Clear 2x2 binning and 90 sec on the 24".
> 
> Mike, thanks for the AAVSO chart link.
> 
> Jerry Foote
> Center for Backyard Astrophysics-Utah
> jfoote at scopecraft.com
> 
> 
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>