(cba:news) AH Mensae contaminating star

[Joe Patterson]

Hi CBAers,

A few months ago Gordon notified me that this star - of high interest 
this year - has an unwanted companion of roughly equal brightness just 2 
arcsec away.  I forgot about this, but stumbled on the note as I was 
studying this year's data (from Gordon, Josch, and Berto).  At -81 
degrees dec, this doesn't concern many of you - but if you observe this 
star, be sure to use enough aperture to cleanly include both stars.  At 
13th magnitude, you can be generous.

And there's good reason to observe it.  It's one of the best and 
brightest "permanent superhump" systems in the sky.  I wrote one 
detailed paper on it in 1995, and we have a lot of archival data since. 
  I'm deeply burrowed in it now, and recommend this guy very strongly. 
It would be great to actually get 24-hour coverage.  The short summer 
nights (and those sadly wide oceans) probably prevent this - but we can 
get close.  Peter Nelson and Greg Bolt, are you reading?

joe
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