From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Thu Jan  5 19:32:13 2012
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:32:13 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) BK Lyn comparison stars
Message-ID: <4F06410D.1060706@astro.columbia.edu>

Hi CBAers,

Coverage of BK Lyn has been very good, but this star's behavior is so 
regular that standardization of comparison stars has become an issue. 
(It's always *somewhat* of an issue, but for many stars I neutralize it 
by subtracting the mean from each nightly time series; this optimizes 
period search at most interesting frequencies, but blinds us to low 
frequency.)

Some of you list comparison stars, some not, and some change comparison 
stars.  For BK Lyn, it seems that popular choices have been
(1) GSC 2496-0893 (V=13.90) 9 20 23.45  +33 59 17.1
(2) GSC 2496-1453 (V=14.89) 9 20 13.21  +33 58 54.6

Some of you might want to re-send messages warning about variables in 
the field.  I took some notes on them, but am not certain I got it right.

So far, in analysis I've converted your observations to (1), with 
additive constants I've estimated.  In general this will go easier if 
you actually *use* (1) as your comparison star.`(2) is ok too.  Third 
best is any suitable comparison star in the field, assuming you always 
use the same comparison, OR measure the relevant additive constant for 
any new comparison star used.  (You have to measure it, not just use a 
catalogued value, because of the unfiltered magnitudes we generally use.)

I've been fussy about this because I can see that BK has a large 
low-frequency variation, which we need to measure carefully. It's just 
not our usual style, but it needs to be now.

Great target, by the way, and decently.  I can see that 2012 looms as 
the year of the negative superhump!

joe


From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Thu Jan  5 22:16:05 2012
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:16:05 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) and for ER UMa and Paloma = RX0524+42
Message-ID: <4F066775.5090607@astro.columbia.edu>

Like BK Lyn, these two stars are also featured on the CBA menu, and 
flashing apparent negative superhumps - plus some other signals.
If we have a roughly correct model of a negative superhump, the star 
should have a slowly wobbling accretion disk, giving it a distinct 
photometric signal at P(wobble)... which would be around 1-5 days.  To 
measure such a thing, we need a decent (not impeccable but decent) 
calibration among distant observatories.

For ER UMa, the spear-carriers so far have been Enrique and Bob Koff. 
Both are using GSC 3439-0629 (AAVSO 142), which has V=14.203.

For Paloma, it has been mainly Enrique and Tom Krajci... and the 
comparison star has been GSC 2917-0675, which has V=13.35.

BK Lyn and ER UMa flash beautiful signals, and we'll stick with them for 
at least another 40 days.  Paloma is very multiperiodic, plus faint... 
so the individual-night time series are harder to appreciate (and 
understand).  But that one we should also continue for about another month.

Shorter runs on the DQ Her stars are again in fashion: Swift 0721-13,
WX Pyx, V405 Aur, RX0704+26, RX0636+35, EX Hya, DW Cnc (long only), 
V1033 Cas.

I very much hope that you australites will give a lot of attention to AH 
Men this season - likely another negative superhumper, based on past 
years' performance.  Bob Rea's comp star is GSC 9391-110.

joe


From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Sat Jan  7 20:04:26 2012
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:04:26 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) NSV 1436: an interesting target
Message-ID: <4F08EB9A.3050707@astro.columbia.edu>

Looks pretty tempting to me... possible new DQ Her...and the observation 
window is likely to close in just a few days...

joe

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: (cba:chat) NSV 1436: an interesting target
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 23:16:42 +0100
From: Enrique de Miguel <edmiguel63 at gmail.com>
Reply-To: cba-chat at cbastro.org
To: cba-chat at cbastro.org

Hi all,

   I would like to call your attention on this target
(NSV 1436, at 04:02:39.02 +42:50:46.0). I think
we have a good chance now to unveil some of the
mysteries hidden by this system. Some background ....

   A bright outburst was registered (E. Muyllaert)
by the end of March 2011. We managed to get some time
series, but the target was not particularly well
placed and it was dropped from our target list, as it
didn't seem to show any interesting feature at the time, appart
from low-amplitude oscillations. Tom also reported
a single time series on Oct 12, but the light curve
was equally dull (maybe we have further data in the
CBA archive, but I haven't checked).

   Further information about this interesting target
can be found in the AAVSO Alert Notice 434, reported
by Matthew Templeton on March 30, 2011. From that
note, one can learn that the only bright outburst
of this system was around 1948 (some other less bright
outbursts seem to have occurred since). This is
a known X-ray source, and a recent
paper (Brown et al., 2010, JAAVSO 38, 176) points
to the possibility of NSV 1436 being a recurrent nova
(further historical details in that paper). Basically,
it looks like we don't know what type of DN this is.

   Tom reported last January 2 through the cba-chat that
Mike Linnolt had just registered a new bright outburst
(visually, at 12.4V). We started inmediate follow-up
of this target (Tom, Shawn, and myself). The first
3 nights were a bit dissapointing: one could guess
the presence of high-frequency oscillations, but
difficult to tell about their stability. These oscillations
were of low amplitude (0.03-0.05 mag) on top of
rapidly decay trend of about 0.8-0.9 per day: apparently,
as dull as the light curves we registered some months
ago.

   However, the system entered on January 5 into an interesting
state, with very large oscillations (full amplitude of ~0.8 mag).
Some plots are shown below.
  From the data we have collected so far (Tom, Shawn, and myself)
it seems that we can unveil the orbital period of the system,
which is 0.189(3) d. On top of the nightly light curves, one
can easily observe high-frequency oscillations. From the limited
data we have collected so far, the main oscillations occurs with
a periodicity of 0.02305(7) d. Besides this ~33 min oscillations,
there seems to be others (tentatively, at 43.7 min, 22.6 min,
and 13.9 min). Needless to say that all this is very preliminary
and can (surely, it will) change over the next days.

   For those interested in following this target, I would suggest
only long runs (if possible, covering over one cycle), which
is feasible for Norther latitudes. The target is at the moment
of writing oscillating between 15.8 and 16.5 CV, I'm using
GSC 2885-1928 as comp star.

   Hope someone else can join the action.

   Enrique



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From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Fri Jan 13 14:58:24 2012
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:58:24 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) outburst of X-ray source 1RXS  J074112.2-094529
Message-ID: <4F108CE0.3060209@astro.columbia.edu>

Dear CBAers,

This vsnet message refers to a new star, very likely a freshly erupted 
short-period dwarf nova.  Probably just up our alley, decently 
equatorial and transiting near midnight.  Can someone observe it and 
suggest a comparison star for most of us to use?

Also, I wanted again to commend Paloma = RX0524+42.  For those of you 
with a little extra by way of aperture, courage, or effrontery, it will 
be a great target.  (Around 17.5, but with a *large* amplitude 
variation.)  Gotta be long time series, though - the light curve is 
complex, and will never surrender to the faint of heart.  The star is 
probably an asynchronous AM Her star, but it has at least 3 prominent 
periods in its light curve (actually >8, but 3 independent).

No change in other targets.  As Enrique pointed out, the ER UMa campaign 
is going great... but BK Lyn, in the same part of the sky, needs your 
love too - and is somewhat the easier target, since the up-and-down 
ramps are less bothersome.

joe


> MPRE 2012-0001
>   R.A.  07h41m12s.70
>   Decl. -09o45'55".9  (2000.0)
>   Mag.  14.1-<15.6C
>   Type  ?
> = 1RXS J074112.2-094529
>
> I checked the Minor Planet Checker, the SIMBAD database and 2MASS
> images, and found nothing at this position.

    GSC 2.3.2 has a 19.1(Bj) mag counterpart.  The object looks like
a dwarf nova with a relatively large outburst amplitude.



From jk at cbastro.org  Sat Jan 28 17:28:22 2012
From: jk at cbastro.org (Jonathan Kemp)
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:28:22 -1000 (HST)
Subject: (cba:news) 2012 Society for Astronomical Sciences Symposium
Message-ID: <alpine.LRH.2.02.1201281107540.21760@155west.org>

Hi,

Please find below an announcement, courtesy Jerry Foote, of the 2012 
Society for Astronomical Sciences Symposium.  It will be held in Big Bear, 
California, during May 22-24, 2012.  Please direct questions to 
program at SocAstroSci.org .

Cheers,

Jonathan


--


Happy New Year!

The latest SAS newsletter is now available on-line as a
PDF download. Visit

http://www.socastrosci.org/publications.html

The newsletter features additional details to those given
below for the 2012 Symposium on Telescope Science as well
as some great articles.

*******************************************************

It's time to start giving thought to the 2012 Symposium
on Telescope Science.

This will be a joint meeting with the AAVSO, which
we hope will be as big as the one in 2009 that saw
about 150 people in attendance.

The dates are Tuesday-Thursday, May 22-24, 2012. Tuesday
will feature a morning workshop on spectroscopy with
small telescopes lead by Dr. John C. Martin. The afternoon
workshop is hosted by the AAVSO's Dr. Aaron Price and will
cover VPHOT, the on-line photometry program.

Wednesday and Thursday morning will feature our paper sessions.
Thursday afternoon is set aside for the AAVSO general membership
meeting, socializing, and meeting with our sponsors and vendors.

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS:
Here are the deadlines (2012):

     Abstract Deadline:  Sat. March 16, 00 UT
     Papers Deadline:    Sat. April 13, 00 UT

Note that the deadlines are UT and so, for those in the
U.S., the deadlines are late afternoon on the day before,
i.e., Friday March 15 and April 12.

What we are really soliciting is a 20 minute oral
presentation, 15 minutes talk and 5 minutes Q/A, _AND_
a paper that covers the presentation in more detail.

Note the shorter presentation time than in previous years,
which were 30 minutes total. This for two reasons: 1)
to make giving a presentation less of a daunting effort and
2) to allow time for the AAVSO general membership meeting on
Thursday afternoon.

Papers can be any reasonable length. As in 2009, papers
at the SAS/AAVSO meeting will not be considered "prior
publication" and so can be submitted to the JAAVSO for more
formal publication. Either way, the papers are indexed in
the SAO/NASA Astrophysical Data System (ADS).

The presentation/paper can be on just about any topic
related to amateur astronomy research - from general
discussion of techniques, theory, or concepts - to actual
results, pro-am collaborations, and so on. They _cannot_ be
commercial in nature, i.e., you can't use the time to promote
a product or service, yours or a friend's, but you can detail
how a specific product was used in the course of carrying out
your research.

Papers can be submitted as Word (preferably as a 2003 DOC and
not 2007 DOCX) or Open Office Writer (preferably 3.x). A Word
template is available on our web site at

http://www.SocAstroSci.org

If nothing else, use that as a rough guide on layout
and fonts. Please use only Times New Roman, Arial, or
Symbol fonts. If you use exotic fonts, they may get lost
in translation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact
the program committee at

program at SocAstroSci.org

It's better than you send a message to that address
rather than reply to me directly since that assures
that _someone_ will see your message.

We look forward to seeing you in Big Bear in 2012.

Clear Skies,
Jerry Foote
Program Committee
Society for Astronomical Sciences


--


From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Sat Jan 28 19:33:31 2012
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:33:31 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) stars for february
Message-ID: <4F2493DB.6090809@astro.columbia.edu>

sent 3 different ways so everyone can read it... (same message)

joe
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From jop at astro.columbia.edu  Tue Jan 31 09:39:58 2012
From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:39:58 -0500
Subject: (cba:news) Fwd: [vsnet-alert 14179] OT J102842.9-081927 outburst
In-Reply-To: <E1Rs4Mn-0004sC-2P@ori.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
References: <E1Rs4Mn-0004sC-2P@ori.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
Message-ID: <4F27FD3E.4050301@astro.columbia.edu>


Oops, I missed this one last night.  Now THIS is a star worth a great 
effort!  Crazy short period, nearly equatorial, decently bright, 
transiting in the fat part of the night... it's got everything.  Let's 
train some telescope power on this guy, and see if it's a super (a few 
days of coverage may reveal the periodic waves, in which case yes).

In 2009, some of our australite heavyweights (Berto, Greg Bolt, Bob Rea) 
got some pretty good data... and a popular comparison star was GSC 
05491-00796.  The J2000 position of the variable star is 10 28 42.9 -08 
19 27.


joe


OT J102842.9-081927 outburst

    CRTS has detected this SU UMa-type dwarf nova with an unusual
short period (=CSS090331:102843-081927) in outburst.  The brightness
suggests a superoutburst.  Psh in 2009 was 0.0381 d!
Observations are encouraged!

1201300070564102207 2012-01-30T10:18:45 2012-01-30T09:59:50 10 28 42.88 
-08 19 26.5 14.85 14.92 14.88 14.79 
http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/catalina/20120130/1201300070564102207.html

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