From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Sun Feb  7 08:21:19 2010
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:21:19 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) U Sco, KT Eri, Swifties, SDSS1507+52 = Boo
Message-ID: <4B6EBE4F.90506@astro.columbia.edu>

Dear CBAers,

Some new targets for the menu.  First, just to ratify/cheer Brad 
Schaefer's exhortations re U Sco.  Just obtain the longest feasible time 
series from nova-rise till dawn, and continue till the end of February. 
  Nuff said.

The other fancy nova in this month's sky is KT Eri = Nova Eri 2009.  The 
expected strong soft X-rays finally showed up, and they're pulsed with a 
35 second period (or maybe quasi).  So this is a nice target for an 
evening look-see, perhaps especially at high time resolution to see if 
any of that fast activity occurs at visual wavelengths. (Long shot, but 
plenty worth looking).

Two good X-ray targets are well-placed in the February sky.  There's Big 
Swifty, at 07 46 17.12  -16 11 27.9... a 13.6 mag star very likely to 
flash some quite strong periodic signals.  Well placed for all!

And there's Little Swifty, at 04 57 08.3  +45 27 50.  Same basic story 
(Swift X-ray source identified with a CV, and with a spectrum suggesting 
probable DQ Her status).  Needs only some nice light curve to test the 
hypothesis and reveal the period.  This one's fainter, I think near 17 
but I'm not sure.

Somewhere in the window Feb 15-18, the Hubble Telescope will execute our 
proposal for an ultraviolet spectrum of SDSS 1507+52 = Boo.  To carry 
this out on schedule, we need to certify that the star is at quiescence, 
around V=18.  Apparently the detectors may fry if the star erupts - 
which it never has... but then again, history is just the series of 
extremely unlikely events, one after another.  So can you spy on this 
star and see if it's up to any mischief?

Info on the Swifties coming up shortly...

joe


From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Sun Feb  7 08:22:02 2010
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:22:02 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) Big Swifty
Message-ID: <4B6EBE7A.2030901@astro.columbia.edu>



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Fwd: Swifty for the the Winter]
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:52:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jules Halpern <jules at astro.columbia.edu>
To: jop at astro.columbia.edu

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Swifty for the the Winter
From:    "Jules Halpern" <jules at astro.columbia.edu>
Date:    Sat, August 29, 2009 6:35 pm
To:      thorsten at partita.dartmouth.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think this is another Swift X-ray/UV CV for the winter time.

It's even brighter optically, R = 13.6 in the USNO-B1.0.

(J2000.0) 07 46 17.12 -16 11 27.9

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From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Sun Feb  7 08:22:33 2010
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:22:33 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) little swifty
Message-ID: <4B6EBE99.6020704@astro.columbia.edu>



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Another New  Swift CV
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:14:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jules Halpern <jules at astro.columbia.edu>
To: thorsten at partita.dartmouth.edu, jop at astro.columbia.edu
CC: Jules Halpern <jules at astro.columbia.edu>
References: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0908270256240.31481-100000 at partita.dartmouth.edu>

In case anyone is interested, here is yet another new hard X-ray CV
from Swift (also ROSAT and Chandra), probably magnetic . . .

(J2000.0) 04 57 08.3 +45 27 50



From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Wed Feb 17 14:52:15 2010
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:52:15 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) SDSS 1507+52 = Boo
Message-ID: <4B7C48EF.2040103@astro.columbia.edu>

Sorry to burden you guys with such a faint star (V=18), but our HST 
observation of this guy occurs tomorrow - nominally 1230-2230 UT on Feb 
18.  With a very deep eclipse, a decent orbital hump, and an outrageous 
binary period (66 minutes), it offers many thrills to a big telescope! 
Less so to a little one... but on the other hand, we'd love to see what 
the star is doing - even at modest signal-to-noise - as close as 
possible to the space observation.  That goes for tonight, and the next 
several days.  As long a run as possible... as fast as possible (no 
longer than 120 s, and 60 would be nice)... and smash all your filters 
(we want to explore the clues to binary structure, so white light is 
plenty good).

Thanks!

joe