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(cba:news) Likely black-hole transient (Joe Patterson) [2008-09-12T18:27:05Z]



Dear CBAers,

    Here's a flashy new toy in the evening sky:

http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~jules/swiftj1842.5-1124/swiftj1842.5-1124_finding_chart.pdf

(Position and field shown on the chart)

This is an outbursting X-ray source with properties like those of black-hole transients, and with a decently bright optical counterpart - possibly around 16th mag. Totally virgin object, though it won't be in a few days when the ATel hits the newsstands. Imagine all those beautiful superhumpy light curves falling tragically, and unobserved, on humanity's deaf ears and shuttered telescopes!

Get thee to a telescope. Sorry for the inconvenient sky position. It follows the general rule that things are always discovered *late* in the observing season. But if we can patch together runs from ZA and NZ or AU, we can still do a decent job - and can solve the alias issues.

Still waiting anxiously for V466 And to bust out in powerful superhumps. When they start, they usually reach maximum amplitude within 1 day. So keep a close watch!

joe