(cba:news) t pyx, finis

[Joe Patterson]

                                                        1/29/15

Dear CBAers,

Thanks mostly to the great watchfulness of Berto and Gordon, the year's 
T Pyx campaign - in fact the ten-year campaign - is over.  Not only did 
we (Arto being the main player then) document in much detail the return 
of the orbital signal after eruption, but the coverage since then 
(2012-3-4/5) demonstrates that the orbital period continues to increase 
- at about the same rate as pre-eruption.  This supports the idea that 
the oddities of T Pyx (the great luminosity and Pdot) represent a true 
evolutionary phase, rather than something transient and essentially 
recovery-from-eruption.

So we're finished with it.

I hope people (mostly southern) will give HZ Pup a try.  That one hasn't 
elicited interest this year.  It's 2.5 mag fainter, so I can understand 
why... but it's the "new kid on our block", and any good time series you 
manage to get would have high impact.

Then there's CP Pup.  Same part of the sky, pretty bright (15.0), and 
usually with a high-amplitude signal.  The fascinating thing about CP 
Pup is that this strong signal isn't stable in phase or amplitude, and 
isn't a superhump either.  It's something new, related to the 90-minute 
Porb in some way not yet known.  I have a working hypothesis (the 2:1 
cousin of the normal 3:1 superhump), but it's hard to test because the 
signal is so damn SLIPPERY.  But February is surely the right time to 
try!  Bob Rea has been going strong on it; it would be great to have 
help from others.

Finally - for the southern novae - can someone have a look at V382 Vel?
How bright is it now?

Of course the DWARF NOVAE have started off the year just great - 
especially the various ASAS guys: 14mv, 15bu, 15bp.  I'm going to need a 
lot of help with these guys, because:
1. They're so numerous.
2. I broke my hand recently, and everything I do with my hands ranges 
from twice-as-hard to twice-as-long to impossible.  This message will 
take 1-2 hours to type.  I hope other people, esp. those of you doing 
analysis, will help with the information flow.  (I can still manage the 
quickie things, but longer messages are intimidating.)

Some of the dwarf novae are really striking, practically unique: 14mv 
and 14ei are definitely in that category, and the other two might be (I 
haven't studied them yet).  It's awfully weird to use a word like 
"unique" for a class with already about 700 members!  Is this the "tip 
of an iceberg"?

Have a great ol' February!

joe p
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