Suggestions for CV stars in the Southern Hemisphere

[Stewart John Bean]

I have been looking for suitable CV targets observable from Chile. I have an interest in variables of the ER UMa and UGSS type.  Other than V1159 Ori and UU Aql, I’m finding it a bit difficult.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Stewart Bean

[Jeremy Shears]

Stewart, you can interrogate the VSX database 

You can ask it to return UGSS, or UGER, or whatever you fancy. You can select to get the results returNed sorted by Dec, which will help you to find southerly targets

[Stewart John Bean]

Jeremy,

Thx for your help. I’ve found UU Aql as a suitable target. Its listed as UGSS type in VSX although the data are a little sparse.

Stewart

[Dr Paul Leyland]

Let me take a look at the ones I’ve observed from La Palma. Not sure whether by “southern hemisphere” you mean negative declination or so far south they can not readily be observed from the UK. Some equatorial stars are visible from both Chile and the UK.

…  Checking … OK:

Not observed any ER or UGSS very far south, sorry.

HL CMa is a UGZ/IW so might be ok but not ideal for you. Very nice bright guide star near by, as is a white dwarf worth observing. The declination is -17 degrees.

BW Scl — a UGZZ+GZ/GWLIB Declination is -39 degrees.

There are doubtless thousands if not hundreds more. The previous advice to consult VSX is strongly recommended.  Those two are just a couple I’ve observed.

How do you propose to observe them? Both Magellanic Clouds are full of variables of all kinds, so if you fancy more of a challenge …

[Stewart John Bean]

I really mean those that can be observed from one of the remote telescopes at the latitude of, say, Santiago, Chile. There are not many in VSX but V1159 Ori is one. V1159 Ori is a good candidate (UGER) as it can be observed from both hemispheres giving a good temporal coverage. Brightness in the range 13.5 to 15.5 so easy enough. Its also one of the topics in M. Otulakowska-Hypka and A. Olech, MNRAS 433, 1338–1343 (2013)  so I will get into its ~50 day supercycle at some point.

Interest has been heighten by recent poor weather on Tenerife.

Stewart

now in Gloucestershire.

[Dr Paul Leyland]

Since you haven’t found much in VSX have you considered looking for new CVs?  Patrol lowish galactic latitudes and the SMC/LMC regions, perhaps, and see what shows up. Most will be Miras, semiregulars or eclipsers but you can ignore the red ones by checking with GAIA B/G/R photometry. It’s a shame the variability flag isn’t set in EDR3 or we could try to characterize newcomers.

Might be an interesting sideline. Certainly a golden opportunity to learn about how to handle big data — something amateurs are beginning to catch up with the professionals for many of whom it is now routine.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Stewart John Bean]

I have come across a paper by Kato et al “Photometric study of new southern SU UMa-type dwarf novae

and candidates: V877 Ara, KK Tel and PU CMa”  

So I am occasionally imaging PU CMa as it may be coming up for a superoutburst in January/February. The other two will be better placed in the spring. 

In the meantime, I have joined G Poyner and IL Walton in following V1159 Ori.

[Dr Paul Leyland]

What a shame.

KK Tel at a declination of -52.3 degrees rises above my physical horizon (or so I believe, as I’m not sure what the physical horizon is any more) but is too far south for the design of the mount which limits me to a declination of -47.5 degrees. V877 Ara at -65.5 is much too far south.

PU CMa is no problem. I already monitor HL CMa.

Even if KK Tel was accessible it would be so low that precision photometry would be exceedingly difficult. The best I could do is pick up and announce an outburst.

Oh well. If you find any others north of -47, please let me know by posting here.

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