Special Notice #186: Request for observations of high-mass X-ray binaries

AAVSO Special Notice #186

Request for observations of high-mass X-ray binaries
January 4, 2010

Dr. Gordon Sarty, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, requests our continuing assistance in his ongoing radial velocity observations of High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs).  See AAVSO Special Notice 175 for prior requests and project information. The targets for the current observing run are the same as those listed in Special Notice 175.  Dr. Sarty provides the following text for the current request:

"Please obtain BVRI photometry (or any subset thereof, VI preferred) of the following six HMXBs for the time period of our radial velocity observations from January 4 to January 31. The actual scheduled observing times are January 4-7 and January 22-31 if you want to get observations that are simultaneous with ours. Simultaneous observations are very useful. All observations of the HMXBs at any time are valuable.

The targets for this observing campaign are:

Desig.   Name         R.A.(2000) Dec.(2000)   Mag  LPH no.  AUID
2157+49  V2175 Cyg   22:01:38.2  +50:10:04.6  8.8  127    000-BFS-469
2204+54  2206+543    22:07:56.2  +54:31:06.4  9.9  128    000-BDC-531 [V1008 Cep]
0140+60B V831 Cas    01:47:00.2  +61:21:23.7  11.3 029    000-BCY-758
0434+41  RXJ0440.9+  04:40:59.3  +44:31:49.3  10.8 034    000-BCZ-082 [LS V +44 17]
0515+37  V420 Aur    05:22:35.2  +37:40:33.6  7.5  040    000-BCT-897
0630+05B SAXJ0635+0  06:35:18.3  +05:33:06.3  12.8 058    000-BCZ-435 [SAX J0635+0533]

Our radial velocity measurements will be done with the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) 1.85-m Plaskett telescope, in Victoria, B.C., Canada. We will alternate observations of a different subset of the six stars throughout each night. The observer will be Dave Balam, who can be reached by e-mail to cosmos@uvic.ca. Interested AAVSO observers should concentrate on one star per night, all night, for as many nights as you can devote, while we are observing.

For more background information on the HMXB project, please see our JAAVSO preprint at http://www.aavso.org/publications/ejaavso/v35n2/327.shtml

Charts with project specific information may be downloaded at:
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/Astronomy/LPH127_aavso.pdf
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/Astronomy/LPH128_aavso.pdf
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/Astronomy/LPH029_aavso.pdf
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/Astronomy/LPH034_aavso.pdf
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/Astronomy/LPH040_aavso.pdf
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/Astronomy/LPH058_aavso.pdf

Please submit your observations directly to the AAVSO International Database.

Thanks for your ongoing coverage of the HMXBs.

Please direct any questions about this observing campaign to Dr. Gordon Sarty at gordon.sarty@usask.ca ."

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