(cba:news) Targets etc. for mid-2026 ('Joe Patterson' via CBA News) [2026-08-09T21:15:36Z]

Hi CBAers,

Here's an update for where we stand re some of our common observing 
projects.

1. T Pyx and IM Nor.  Somewhat faint targets, but exhibiting pretty 
well-defined eclipses and changes in P_orb.  Nothing particularly subtle 
about the light curve.  Both southern, of course.  I have a lot of data, 
a student working on it, and a decent expectation of getting out a draft 
on these guys by late 2026.

2. V1500 Cyg.  Two periods -more or less spin and orbit - and it would 
be great to disentangle them.  One shows up mainly in polarization 
(which we don't track, of course)... but maybe we could get a really 
solid photometric period.  Great Aug-Oct sky placement... but perhaps 
impossibly faint.  Some of you might remember that it erupted in 1975 
from a BLANK spot on the Palomar Sky Survey!

3. DQ Her.  I think good ol' DQ will stay interesting for many years. 
Timings since 1954, very precise since 1975, and probably the ability to 
track Pdot as well - with year or with magnitude.  Of course you need 
accurate timing for a 71 s period.  Mind the heliocentric corrections, 
of course!

4. V1674 Her.  I've lost some of my mojo on this guy - but only because 
it's so faint.  If you can handle ~18.7, give it a shot!  Because it's 
the FASTEST nova ever, it could teach us something (esp. bookended with 
DQ Her, among the slowest).

5. QR And..  Good summer-fall target for Europe/USA.  Plenty bright, and 
we have lots of data.  But maddeningly, it's a double-humper with a 
period of about 13.5 hours.... so to distinguish the two humps, we need 
to have continuous EUrope-USA coverage on one or more nights.  I haven't 
found that yet in the archive.  I'll keep looking.

6.  AM CVn.  Our 2020 SAS paper said it all.  But with a sprinkling of 
new data in March-May 2027, we could get a really good value of dPorb/dt 
- a really good thing to know for something as simple as a white dwarf!

Aside from dog care and yard work, I spend most of my time these days 
writing my monthly sky columns (for "Pioneer Works", though also carried 
on the Columbia Astronomy website (under Events/Big Apple Sky Calendar).

joe

P.S. I might be forgetting some timely targets remind me!

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