(cba:news) HZ Puppis!

[Joe Patterson]

Dear CBAers,

We'd like to make a strong effort to go round-the-world on HZ Pup, the 
remnant of a 1963 nova.  Tim Abbott and Allen Shafter identified it as 
an intermediate polar in the mid-1990s, and our scattered coverage over 
the last decade has confirmed.  However, the power-spectrum is unusual, 
with nu-orb and nu-spin... and two other stable signals which are near 
nu-spin.  To separate all these things out and decisively identify them, 
we need round-the-world coverage.

I'm too old for space (I could never take the 8 g's), so let's try to do 
it CBA-style.  January is the perfect month, but the star is fairly 
southern (-28 deg), so we have THREE big oceans to contend with.  So far 
this season, only Gordon has worked on this star.  But Berto could do it 
in South Africa, and Josch could get slow coverage from Chile (maybe 
replacing V598 Pup, Josch?).  But for fast coverage in the Americas, 
we're probably relying on observers in Florida, Texas, and California 
(or for more northerly people who have great southern horizons).

To beat the inevitable aliasing, it's not necessary to be contiguous in 
time, so you don't have to fuss over who is clear where and when. If 
you're near a big ocean, then you have a special role to play.  Here's 
looking at you, Greg (Bolt) and Jennie (McCormick)!

The periodic signals are strong (0.15 mag), but you might not be able to 
see them, as the three signals beat in and out of phase.  Also, the star 
is magnitude 16.9.

Meanwhile, there are other campaigns, on which Enrique has discoursed 
eloquently.  I especially recommend DW Cnc because of the strangely high 
value of Psin/Porb.

HZ Pup 2000.0: 8:03:22.8 and dec -28d 28m 28s.  Magnitude 16.9.

joe


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