(cba:news) March 2009 stars (Joe Patterson) [2009-03-11T06:42:04Z]

Dear CBAers,

Sorry for the long silence.  I'm still reeling from the shock of teaching
an astronomy lab course for 38 students.  The course is in mid-stream, and
I'm about to head off to AZ for 12 nights of observing with the students...
so it's a long duration shock.  

March nights are ideal for our two principal long-term timing programs:
the rapidly increasing orbital period of T Pyx, and the slowly decreasing
orbital period (the 1028 s period) of AM CVn.  Respectively 15.2 and 14.2 -
and nicely bookended for southern and northern observers.  Both stars can
easily withstand the full moon of the next week; since we care about the
*periodic* signal, we're not terribly subject to signal-to-noise issues.

Thanks to the Razorback gang, we've done fine on RX0636+35, and can retire
that object.  Ditto V405 Aur.  But there are some other evening sky CVs,
mostly DQ Her stars, which would be very good targets: BG CMi (0729+10),
DW Cnc (0758+16), Swift 0732-13, RX0704+26 ("Gem"), and PQ Gem (0751+14).
These are all around mag 15.  Unfiltered light is fine for all, EXCEPT
PQ Gem, which requires a filter (V, R, or I are OK - but just choose one).
Fire away!

Most of these objects are northern, except for the Swiftie, but I hope
australites will venture slightly north of the equator, since it'll be
tough to track all these guys.  The other southern objects deserving of
close attention this month, besides T Pyx, are WX Pyx and EX Hya.
And RX1050-14 ("Hya"), if you're feeling lucky and don't mind looking at
very flat light curves!  (In other words, it's a long shot, but will be
very exciting if the star does anything - shows a periodic signal, or indeed
any variability at all.)

Happy observing!  My next two weeks will be filled with star trails,
pictures of the Orion Nebula, and peanut butter sandwiches - plus an
occasional CV eclipse here and there.  I will be attending, as will
at least half a dozen other CBAers, the May meeting at Big Bear; I hope
to meet up with old friends there, and especially to meet some of the
newer CBAers.  Lemme know if you're coming!

joe