From jop at astro.columbia.edu Thu Feb 6 13:17:45 2014 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 13:17:45 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) V745 Scorpii in outburst Message-ID: <52F3D1C9.5030907@astro.columbia.edu> Hi CBAers, Rod Stubbings just reported an outburst of the recurrent nova V745 Scorpii, at V=9.0. The sky placement is mighty unfavorable (1752-33), but these opportunities are mighty rare (only known outbursts in 1937 and 1989). Time-series photometry near the peak of a recurrent-nova outburst (probably now) is especially rare. joe ____________________________________________________________ Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA) mailing lists https://cbastro.org/communications/mailing-lists/ From jop at astro.columbia.edu Sat Feb 8 08:09:08 2014 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2014 08:09:08 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) (cba:chat) Joint mtg SAS, AAVSO & CBA In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <52F62C74.4060709@astro.columbia.edu> Hi Lew et al. I have no certain or official knowledge of this, but the program seemed fairly clear. The two full conference days are June 13 and 14, plus June 12 for workshops and the AAVSO "general" meeting. So I would guess that the arrival/departure dates for most people will be June 11 and 15. The hotel default should therefore be June 10-15 inclusive, 6 nights. Strangely, it's June 9-14, inclusive. Looks like a hotel error to me, and a minor one since most people will choose their own dates. In my mind the only uncertainty is whether there might be some component of the meeting, probably a reception, on the evening of June 11. We have no set-aside time for a CBA component, at least not yet. But in addition to the usual shared meals and one group discussion, I'd like to encourage CBAers to give brief illustrated talks on their own instrumental setup and observations... and would also like to collect pdf or ppt versions for the record. I'll try to get some time for that, probably in a small conference room. It would also be *great* if some CBAers gave talks in the normal June 13 and 14 meeting schedule - in which case, abstracts are due on March 15. In a few days I'll send out some science highlights (based on the totality of CBA data, including yours) which I think are good candidates. joe On 2/7/2014 9:13 PM, Lew C wrote: > Does anyone know WHEN ARE EVENTS SCHEDULED for the spring meeting with CBA, > SAS and AAVSO? The hotel dates are selected as June 9 - 14 yet the SAS > Symposium is set for June 11-13. If you folks are planning something for > the 10th, that makes sense, otherwise I will reserve my room June 10-14. I > need to get an early reservation, because handicapped rooms may not be > available later. > > Thanks, > > Lew > ____________________________________________________________ > Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA) mailing lists > https://cbastro.org/communications/mailing-lists/ > ____________________________________________________________ Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA) mailing lists https://cbastro.org/communications/mailing-lists/ From jop at astro.columbia.edu Mon Feb 17 13:45:47 2014 From: jop at astro.columbia.edu (Joe Patterson) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 13:45:47 -0500 Subject: (cba:news) stars for february Message-ID: <530258DB.8060904@astro.columbia.edu> Dear CBAers, Three feet of snow outside now, in the Catskill Mountains. Two in New York City. More coming tonight. An amazing winter of snow and cold. I've actually destroyed two snow shovels through overuse; I didn't think it was possible to wear out a snow shovel. A foot of ice on the astronomy- department roof - and me trying to teach an observational astronomy class. Tough on the old bones. I'm sure Joe U and all the upper-Midwest folks have similar stories. But hope springs eternal, and let's overhaul our target menu. 1. V745 Sco has declined to show short-term variability, and it seems likely that it's in the T CrB class, where we don't learn much from photometry. I could be wrong... but with so poor a sky position, I think we should take V745 off the list. 2. HZ Puppis. With Berto and Peter Nelson coming through (also Gordon Myers and Bob Rea), the daily aliasing is now clear, and we have a great one-month baseline. A few runs scattered over the next two months will improve the period and lay the groundwork for a long-term ephemeris (bridging the always-troublesome yearly gaps). But it needs no more than that... especially since it competes with two more important old novae. 3. CP Puppis. Time for another all-hands-on-board effort on CP Pup, for the next three weeks. A lotta nice data during the last two years, but the conclusion from it is so unusual as to make me still uncomfortable (a new kind of superhump - not orbital, not common, something new which doesn't obey any known mathematical relation). One more season would conquer my discomfort! 4. T Pyx. Back on the menu as a secondary target. Maybe 5-10 nights from now until May, when it disappears. This should enable us to see whether the period now (post-eruption) has resumed its steady increase, or has stabilized. 3. V902 Mon, a new DQ Her star. We have great data, but it's all from Enrique; we *really* need coverage from other longitudes! 4. V406 Vir. Oh yes! An excellent candidate for a period-bouncer - a binary that has entered its final phase of evolution and is increasing its P_orb. Regardless of whether that's true, the star has a large-amplitude signal with a period near 8 hours - far in excess of its 1.5 hour P_orb. No one has a clue about what this is. Is it stable? Is it related in some not-yet-measured way to P_orb? These matters are *our* responsibility. The star is mear magnitude 17, and thus within reach of most of our scopes on good nights. It's vital to get several longitudes in the act, too - because the period is so long. 5. AM CVn. Easy target for CBAers. We skipped 2013, and intended to make a big push in 2014 to nail down the long-term P_orb change - which will be compared with the predictions from gravitational-radiation theory. (GR expels angular momentum, and thus should shorten P_orb at a fixed rate.) Now it's 2014, and let's do it. AM CVn's light curve - pretty flat - wins no prizes for beauty, but it does permit an accurate solution for the phase of the orbital variation. 6. I've finished the long-term period solutions for several IPs, which won't need any more coverage: BG CMi (thanks Shawn!), DQ Her, DW Cnc, V405 Aur, V418 Gem, V647 Aur. Stars still needing that coverage are: V667 Pup, EX Hya, WX Pyx, HT Cam, MU Cam. 7. In November we carried out major campaigns on BY Cam and RX0524+42 ("Paloma") - and then left them to resume coverage in February (in order to get the longest possible 2013/4 baseline). Time to do so. 8. V355 UMa and ER UMa. Enrique, could you clarify the status of these? I'm inclined to recommend V355 UMa as a major target now, or starting in a few weeks - whaddayathink? There's the menu. I hope to see a whole bunch of you at the SAS/AAVSO/ CBA meeting in June! joe p -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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