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Yes, I’m following it from my home observatory, Mike. I had it at mag 14.2 in an unfiltered CCD image last night (Apr 25 at 21.04 UT).
Looks like I’m in for a few cloudy nights, so I hope you are able to be more successful from Arizona
Glad to hear Alan’s talk went down well and to see him looking so well. Wonderful to hear his experiences of a lifetime in astronomy – I’m looking forward to the video.
Thanks Bill. David Portree tells me we can expect some more images of the crater:
“Stand by on that new Blagg crater image – tentative date is 4/25. We have the low-Sun image mosaic I used in the post and some high-Sun images that show mainly brightness variations – if all goes well, the new image (actually a pair taken on successive orbits) will be intermediate between the two, so we’ll see more of the Blagg crater floor and more secondary crater wall slump action (if it exists).”
If I hear more, I’ll let you know.
Lunar occultations could be an interesting project, especially to observe grazing occultations where several members of the AS could be spaced across/along the graze track. Could even be extended to asteroidal occultations.
Many thanks for the reminder, David.
I have now registered for the conference.
I would be interested to learn if any other members will be travelling to the meeting.
I have updated the light curve of this star today and it is available on the VSS website.
In the 3 months of the campaign we have caught 11 of its small outbursts. There is a suggestion that they are stunted outbursts, similar to those seen in some novalike cataclysmic variables, including UU Aqr, in which only a part of the accretion disc goes into outburst.
There is also a curious larger-than-normal fade around JD 2458520 (this was present in data from several observers).
Many thanks to all out observers, the list of which has been growing steadily: Richard Sabo, Ken Menzies, Gary Poyner, David Boyd, Dave Smith, Ian Miller, David Storey, Sjoerd Dufoer, Martin Mobberley, James Boardman, George Fleming, Mel Joslin, William Kautter, Erik Schwendeman, Tamas Tordai and Mario Morales Aimar. Your data have provided a well-sample light curve which I am sure will yield useful results!
The campaign was intended to last 3 months until the end of 2019 Feb, i.e. today. Thus will the campaign is officially ended, observations would also be appreciated after this time. Since this is a circumpolar object and continues to be well positioned for most northern observers. We would like one (or a few) observations per night to define the overall outburst light curve and whether there is a quiescence period between outbursts. In the meantime I will analyse the data received to date.
A summary of what is known about the star and about the campaign is presented in the March edition of the BAA Variable Star Section Circular (page 15) which was issued today.
That’s a really interesting and encouraging observation, David.
i see there is a report on observing the Pup in S&T this month and the author was successful with a 130 mm refractor, although I presume from a more southerly latitude.
Owen,
I’ve used Park-and-Ride facilities in York on a number of occasions and they are very good.
Jeremy
my residence is in a designated conservation area and hence I needed planning permission for my 2.1 Pulsar observatory. Note the house itself is not listed – it is a contemporary construction.
Before I submitted my application I spoke to the planning department and also to neighbours. The main concern was that the obsy should not be visually obtrusive. the planning officer asked whether the building would be white or silver as that might cause problems. I indicated that a number of colours were available including green.
When the approval came through, the only stipulation was that the fibreglass must be green! I considered this to be a result. Since this colour was also favoured by my wife, I was able to proceed.
Very nice work Bill. Your initial experiments show that this is a very promising development. It will be interesting to see how a more sophisticated grating performs with the ZWO camera.
An updated light curve is available on the VSS website.
There is a paper on this impact on ArXiv
Front cover of my first S&T. Got on the last day of the Christmas hols in Jan 1974 at the Old Royal Greenwich Observatory
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An updated light curve of this variable covering the first two months of the campaign is shown on the BAA Variable Star Section website.
I’m pleased to say our efforts are paying dividends in revealing an very interesting light curve. So far we have observed 6 of its small oscillations. The 5th looks slightly different from the others in that it’s rise to max was slower.
As ever, more observations would be appreciated. It’s gratifying to see that the intensity of coverage has improved over the last month and it’s good to see new observers joining the campaign.
Very many thanks to everyone who has submitted observations so far: Richard Sabo, Ken Menzies, Gary Poyner, David Boyd, Dave Smith, Ian Miller, David Storey, Sjoerd Dufoer, Martin Mobberley, Jeremy Shears, James Boardman, George Fleming, M. Joslin.
Jeremy
I listened to BBC Radio 4’s More or Less programme as I was driving home from Liverpool last Sunday evening. It’s one of my favourite radio programmes and the discussion on the “nearest planet” question was brilliant. It featured Prof David Rothery, who is a regular speaker at BAA meetings. Well worth a listen on iPlayer.
Hello Dominic,
I use a Watec 902H2 Ultimate on one meteor cams and a standard 902H2 on the other. The latter is an older model and they can be picked up quite cheaply on ebay etc. The difficult part these days is to find suitable lenses.
Jeremy
Nice capture Bill. Sadly, not caught on my video cameras.
Was just checking both cameras and I see it cleared here after midnight last night, allowing a few Quadrantids to be captured.
Jeremy
Since the campaign was launched, the star appears to have been systematically varying by ~0.4 mags every ~9 days. A light curve can be seen on the BAA VSS website, which also has a link to further details on the campaign.
There have been a few gaps in data over the last 2 weeks as poor weather conditions have hit parts of Europe and the US.
Many thanks to Richard Sabo, Gary Poyner, David Boyd, Dave Smith, Ian Miller, David Storey, Sjoerd Dufoer and Martin Mobberley for their observations.
Please do join the campaign if you would like – we need one (or two) measurements per night.
