(cba:news) August stars (Joe Patterson) [2011-08-20T18:21:10Z]

                                                        August 2011
Dear CBAers,

Time for a mid-August update on campaign stars.

V1432 Aql. This is an "asynchronous polar", with Porb = 12116 s but Pspin =
12150 s (in 1994).  These two clocks beat in 50 days, and our campaign
has now spanned 52 days (>50, that was the plan).  According to theory,
the white dwarf should be slowly synchronizing now - having been
disrupted by some hypothetical classical nova eruption several centuries
ago.  Our observations - those of Berto, Bob Rea, Yenal Ogmen, and
Tut/George - reveal a period of 12128+-7 s, indicating a quite rapid
spin-up, sufficient to synchronize in about another 20 years.  Success!
We can ring the curtain down on this star in 2011.

FO Aqr.  Lot of data, good distribution with time. Another star to
put away until 2012 (though it remains probably the very best beginner
star out there).

AO Psc.  Just a few observations this year and last... so this is quite
a good one to gang up on in 2011.  And *easy*, at V = 13.5.

Ditto on V1223 Sgr. We need just a few timings, but would like to extend
another month at least (long time series not needed).

SV Ari.  We got a lot of data on this star, dominated by Josch Hambsch,
now observing in Chile.  It's a long-lasting dwarf nova.  Aries's still-
short observing season makes it quite a difficult target to observe, and
difficult also to interpret the periodic signals.  It's probably worth
abandoning unless it eerily flares back up again.

XSS0056+4548.  A very, very good target for long time-series observation.
Very complex pattern of periodic signals.  Likely to be stable, but so
far the observations are not sufficiemntly extensive to specify that
complex pattern, and to prove it.

V1500 Cyg and CD Ind.  The other asynchronous polars up there - both very
well placed in the Aug-Sep sky... and something for each hemisphere.
Considering how nice the V1432 Aql result came out, we ought to mount
campaigns on these two stars.  Both around 17 I believe - but at least
one (CD Ind) has quite a large-amplitude signal.

The new transient in Andromeda should be watched for at least a week,
though it's already kinda faint at 16.5.  Of somewhat greater interest,
probably, is the dwarf nova SDSS2100+00 ("Aqr" in the Downes catalog).
It has just had another eruption - time to make friends with this
definitely interesting star! (Because of the odd stable of periods that
have been reported.)

                               joe