Further to the article by Dr Boris Gaensicke of Warwick University in Circular 129 for September 2006, it has been decided to include ALL of the stars listed in a new observing programme on "Long Term Polar Monitoring".

Although this will be heavily biased towards CCD observers there are a number of objects suitable for visual observers and Gary Poyner has offered the following notes:-

BY Cam is a very active AM star in the mid 15's range. Hourly variations of up to 0.7 mag are observable at times. Low states (to 17th mag) are uncommon. Look out for flickering!

QQ Vul is fairly bright at 14.5 in high state.  Alert if you suspect the star fading.

ST LMi can sometimes be seen rising above 16th magnitude to occasional 'peeks' to the mid-15's, but these are short term events.

AN & AR UMa are possible visual targets with the larger telescope in the mid 16's.  AN UMa occasionally reaches 15.5

MR Ser can usually be seen in the mid 15's.

Gary Poyner has also offered to co-ordinate the programme and so any queries etc should initially be addressed to him.

AAVSO charts already exist for the following stars:-
Star            Sequence
BY Cam     Henden
ST LMi      Henden/Sumner
MR Ser      Henden/Price
QQ Vul      Henden/Price
AN UMa    Stanton
AR UMa    Tycho & Henden
EU UMa     Henden/Sumner

Mike Simonsen has produced a chart for SDSSJ0155 Cet from a Henden sequence.

CCD images should still be taken of these stars as there is no reason why monitoring of the fields can't begin immediately.  Photometry can always be reduced at a later date once a chart and sequence is available.

I do hope observers rise to this challenge and I strongly urge you to thoroughly read Boris's article - especially the final paragraph.

Roger Pickard, Director