From jop at astro.columbia.edu Wed Dec 8 21:53:21 2010 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:53:21 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) OT J020804.2+373217 = Catalina transient Message-ID: <4D0044A1.3080504@astro.columbia.edu> Dear CBAers, Two objects - at least - have become really star attractions in the night sky. One is this new transient described below (and in the CSS data). At 15th magnitude and with fast, large amplitude variations, it will surely be a fascinating target - and likely a star of great astrophysical interest. The new dwarf nova in Pisces is also a winner. The periodic signals seem now to have mutated into common superhumps. Though "common", they're of large amplitude and - if covered extensively by our time-series photometry - will convey a lot of information about the structure of the accretion disks. It would also be mighty nice to know if FS Aur has finally, after all these years of false alarms and inexplicable periods, managed to stage an actual superoutburst. There have been threats, but none have panned out. It did rise to 14th magnitude a few days ago - what about now? As for priorities, I'd give CSS0208 and the Pisces dwarf nova pretty much the highest possible rating. Fire away unfiltered - best to maximize signal-to-noise on these guys. If still bright, FS Aur is mighty interesting too; but it has disappointed many times, so there's some burden of proof there. The American Astronomical Society and AAVSO will be having a joint meeting in Boston during May 22-26, 2011. This is to give you early warning that we'll have a CBA meeting coincident with that too (rather than at SAS in California). I hope this can attract some of our European members. More details later... but I strongly encourage non-AAVSO members to first join the AAVSO. This will get you a much lower registration fee for the AAS meeting... and we'd fit in well with the AAVSOers anyway. So - that makes it official. joe OT J020804.2+373217 = Catalina transient CRTS detected (=CSS101207:020804+373217) a potentially interesting outbursting object. Has an X-ray counterpart and relatively large intranight variation. A blue object in quiescence. 1012071380104223832 2010-12-07T05:50:59 2010-12-07T05:32:57 02 08 04.23 +37 32 16.6 15.08 15.34 15.34 15.47 http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/catalina/20101207/1012071380104223832.html 020802.5 +373235 (2000.0) 1RXS-F_J020802.6+373236 0.030 1.00 0.06 From jop at astro.columbia.edu Mon Dec 13 15:20:10 2010 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:20:10 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) New and Old Stars In-Reply-To: <4D066FE8.7010905@tularosa.net> References: <4D066FE8.7010905@tularosa.net> Message-ID: <4D067FFA.7090202@astro.columbia.edu> Hi Tom, No, I'd say PQ Gem and Swif0732 (and BG CMi) are now well taken care of *early* in the observing season. We can furlough 'em till late in their observing seasons - basically meaning March I'd say. While the really compelling target now is the new dwarf nova in Psc (OT0120), two targets which are now extremely well placed in the sky are FY Per (12th mag) and FS Aur (15-16). Both need long runs - definitely >3 hrs, and prefer much longer. Both are stars which have stymied us in the past - and now that it's a fresh observing season, let's solve them at last. FY Per is the most mysterious, with a transient 1.5 hour wave of an unknown nature (and a 6 hr Porb). Hardly anyone ever mentions it. A filter is (almost) mandatory on this one; V filter would be the best choice. It's no barn-burner - just a few hundredths of a mag; but I think it'll yield if we can patch together Euro and USA data. For DQ Her stars, the more ambitious among you should try HT Cam and WX Pyx. Mighty faint, but these stars don't require the long runs, and can make use of mediocre conditions. Stars that nobody keeps track of but us, so we better get it right. joe On 12/13/2010 2:11 PM, Tom Krajci wrote: > Swift0732-13 gets too low in the morning, so I have an hour I can devote > to PQ Gem, like I did last night. > > Do you still want data on that star? I've been doing Sloan r'...is that > acceptable? > > Tom Krajci > Cloudcroft, NM > From jop at astro.columbia.edu Mon Dec 13 21:30:02 2010 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:30:02 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) OT J102842.9-081927 outburst, and OT0208+37 Message-ID: <4D06D6AA.1060908@astro.columbia.edu> Dear CBAers, This vsnet notification brings a new target into the morning sky for possible coverage. The sky position and timing is poor, but with multiple longitudes, we might be able to decipher it. It's certainly a fascinating star. Speaking of which... Tom Krajci has reminded me of OT0208+37, which he has been covering for 3 nights. The results show this star to have a remarkable triply-periodic power spectrum - at frequencies of 34, 51, and 102 c/d. It's possible that this is just the very complex waveform of an unseen orbital signal at 17 c/d... and then again, it could be something else. Let's find out! It's still bright enough to observe, if you don't mind a little moonlight. joe OT J102842.9-081927 outburst! CRTS detected this object (= CSS090331:102843-081927) in outburst. The object underwent a superoutburst in 2009 March-April and was identified as an ultrashort period (Psh = 0.0381 d), hydrogen-rich object similar to EI Psc and V485 Cen. The brightness of the current outburst suggests a superoutburst. 1012130070564103223 2010-12-13T12:24:26 2010-12-13T12:09:52 10 28 42.87 -08 19 26.5 14.82 14.85 14.81 14.79 http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/catalina/20101213/1012130070564103223.html From jop at astro.columbia.edu Sun Dec 19 16:37:36 2010 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:37:36 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) FY Per, that's a negatory Message-ID: <4D0E7B20.5040104@astro.columbia.edu> Dear CBAers, Some very good data on FY Per has come rolling in, especially from CBA rookies Joe Ulowetz and Shawn Dvorak. But the 90-minute signal that the star sometimes flashes is gone - to an impressive limit - and it's time to move on. By far the best target in the evening sky is the new dwarf nova in Pisces, which is flashing beautiful superhumps these days. OT0208+37 would be excellent too, if it's feasible (I suspect it's too faint now). Later in the night, OT1028-08 is a good choice - and the northern-winter DQ Hers are all suitable, especially with the Moon being so ablaze right now (because pulse timings don't care much about background). V405 Aur, RX0636+35, RX0704+24, MU Cam, WX Pyx, and HT Cam. For an off-the-wall, try-anything-once star, consider WW Cet: a rather strange dwarf nova that we've never covered for even one night. joe From jop at astro.columbia.edu Wed Dec 29 11:32:07 2010 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:32:07 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) stars for the new year Message-ID: <4D1B6287.3010707@astro.columbia.edu> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: cba1228.10 URL: