Beginner Cadence question

Affiliation

British Astronomical Association, Variable Star Section (BAA-VSS)

Mon, 03/04/2024 - 20:24

I just finally broke a month's worth of dreadful skies with a cracker last night.

Got through my whole season's programme (below). Got a few more clear nights forecast so I got to thinking...

Are some worthy of perhaps some intensive coverage? I can't go much below 14th mag.

Target Tool suggests nightly obs or sometimes even less frequently for most CV's. Would some be worth following for the whole session

in the manner of an EB e.g. I have B and V filters. Thinking maybe interesting things happening on shorter timescales.

Thanks

Kevin

Programme Stars

RXAnd

ZAnd

ABAur

RWAur

ZCam

XXCam

S5 0716+71Cam

GammaCas

NSV 15133Cas

RCrB

TXCVn

NGC 4151CVn

BRCVn

PCyg

BFCyg

CHCyg

CICyg

SSCyg

HRDel

ABDra

AGDra

DODra

AMHer

AGPeg

RUPeg

XPer

AXPer

GKPer

TZPer

BUTau

Markn 421UMa

cwt

Affiliation

American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)

Mon, 03/04/2024 - 21:01

Possibilities

That's an impressive list of targets Kevin. One other I'd add would be T CrB. It's a recurrent nova that's going to go off soon. Dr. Brad Schaefer did a webinar on it for us in the fall. You can find it on the AAVSO HQ YouTube channel. Being the first one to spot it going off and raising the alarm so the professionals can react would be a huge deal. Even if you don't spot it first, your pre-nova observations are valuable.

Another possibility that might be too much of a stretch is V1674 Her aka Nova Herculi 2021. It dropped off from nova brightness faster than any nova seen previously. There is a lot of professional interest in it. It is running down between 17 and 18, but shockingly, I can see the 500 second white dwarf spin period an a 1.5 hour time series with an average S/N of only 6.6. The amplitude of the signal is about 0.1 mags so even data that looks like nothing but noise can still be useful to watch the evolution of the system. If you can get to S/N of 10 or so with 2 minute unfiltered exposures, your data is good for this system.

Clearest skies,

Walt

tjmaccarone

Affiliation

None

Mon, 03/04/2024 - 21:07

A general thought

I'd say just generally, if you're limited to 14th magnitude, intensive campaigns on anything that varies stochastically (i.e. isn't purely periodic) will be more valuable than less intensive campaigns on a larger number of objects, or intensive campaigns on things that are periodic. The periodic stuff, and the lower cadence stuff can be done pretty effectively with the sky patrol projects. Other than that, keep an eye out to see if a professional wants help with something, because that makes it more likely the data will get into a paper. And all else being equal, pick something that fascinates you. Walt's suggestions are good ones.