AAVSO Special Notice #258

 

Request for monitoring of SS Cygni in support of European VLBI radio observations

October 13, 2011

 

As mentioned in AAVSO Alert Notice 445 on August 19, 2011, Dr. James

Miller-Jones (International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research,

Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia) and colleagues have a

multiwavelength campaign on the dwarf nova SS Cyg underway as a

follow-up to their very successful multiwavelength campaign on SS Cyg

in 2010 April (see AAVSO Special Notices #204 and 206 and the related

information page).

 

Shortly after we announced the follow-up campaign in August, SS Cyg

went into outburst and, thanks to your excellent coverage and

immediate notification to Headquarters, Dr. Miller-Jones and

colleagues were able to obtain excellent observations.

 

They have more time available, however, and would like to observe

SS Cyg again.

 

THE NEXT POSSIBLE OBSERVING WINDOW IS 2011 OCTOBER 17-18

 

with subsequent 2011 windows of November 23-24 and December 14-15.

 

Dr. Miller-Jones says, "Ideally we would like to know the state of

SS Cyg (particularly whether or not it is going into outburst) a

few days before each of these dates, to give us time to alert

the schedulers and get on the telescope if appropriate. We would

be extremely grateful for any assistance the AAVSO could provide.”

 

SS Cyg is the class prototype of the dwarf novae, and the brightest

dwarf nova in our skies. In quiescence, SS Cyg varies around V=12.0,

and will typically reach V=8.0 at maximum, although anomalous weak

outbursts are sometimes seen. SS Cyg last went into outburst 2011

August 24 (JD 2455797.6139, 11.3, R. King; 2455797.9875, 11.2, H.

Matsuyama); the outburst was a narrow one, lasting 10 days. The next

outburst may occur at any time. Observations brighter than m(vis)=11.0

should be reported as quickly as possible.

 

Observers are asked to increase their monitoring of SS Cyg at least

through December. Please report all observations as soon as is

practical. In the event of an outburst, please report your observations

as quickly as you can via WebObs, and also notify Dr. Matthew Templeton

and Elizabeth Waagen at AAVSO Headquarters (matthewt@aavso.org,

eowaagen@aavso.org). Visual magnitude estimates are a fast and

effective means of monitoring SS Cyg; CCD observations are also useful,

but please reduce your frames and report your data as soon as possible

following an observing run. CCD time-series are not specifically

required for this project.

 

Coordinates for SS Cyg:  RA 21:42:42.79  Dec +43:35:09.9  (J2000.0)

 

Charts for SS Cyg may be plotted using AAVSO VSP: http://www.aavso.org/vsp

 

This campaign is being followed on the AAVSO Observing Campaigns

page. For more information on this project, please see Dr. Miller-Jones'

website: http://www.astro.virginia.edu/xrb_jets

 

 

Please promptly report all observations to the AAVSO International

Database using the name "SS CYG".

 

This AAVSO Special Notice was compiled by Elizabeth O. Waagen.

 

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SUBMIT OBSERVATIONS TO THE AAVSO

 

Information on submitting observations to the AAVSO may be found at:

http://www.aavso.org/webobs

 

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---------------------------------------------------

SUBMIT OBSERVATIONS TO THE AAVSO

 

Information on submitting observations to the AAVSO may be found at:

http://www.aavso.org/webobs

 

SPECIAL NOTICE ARCHIVE AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

 

A Special Notice archive is available at the following URL:

http://www.aavso.org/special-notice-archive/

 

Subscribing and Unsubscribing may be done at the following URL:

http://www.aavso.org/observation-notification#specialnotices