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(cba:news) stars for spetember (Joe Patterson) [2009-09-06T13:51:24Z]


Dear CBAers,

Those pesky dwarf novae are taking a little rest (apparently V713 Cep didn't have real serious intentions), the bright Moon is soon to leave us, and it's a good time to ramp up observing a bit. In particular, it's vital that we now get a couple of September weeks on V4743 Sgr, a star we tracked extensively in June and July. By adding September coverage, we accumulate a total of ~120 days of seasonal coverage - this gives us enough baseline to count cycles uniquely all the way back to 2003, and thus establish a precise ephemeris for both the orbital and the (presumed) rotational clocks. That's the really high priority for southern observers.

BW Scl is, too. We have about two uninterrupted weeks now, due to Berto and Bob Rea. Around one more should yield a power-spectrum sensitivity almost as good as we could ever theoretically obtain. So let's keep the faith a little longer.

Aside from these two, the other southern star I recommend is VZ Scl. We've never done a serious campaign on it, and with the star decently bright at 15.6, it's time to train some telescopes on it. I suspect this maybe be a long-term target.

Northern observers have been a little quiet lately. Maybe the beach has been too tempting. But when you get back from the beach, V455 And awaits. That's my number one recommendation - very long runs on this well-placed star. Shorter runs on RX0022+61 = IGR0023+61, RX1803+40, and RX1703-05 would also be good.

Finally, an excellent beginner star is V Sge. Plenty bright, and with deep eclipses which show a period change still not understood (and not so securely measured). Also, it's pretty easy for me to evaluate data quality for this star. Same goes for AO Psc and FO Aqr; these don't need any new coverage until December, but they're easy to observe and will help me evaluate data-quality issues.

Happy observing!

joe