Dec 3, 2023 CV Section meeting summary

Hi folks.  Some notes from the CV section meeting this past Sunday.

Brian Skiff introduced Dr. John Thorstensen of Dartmouth as our speaker.  Dr. Thorstensen discussed several different types of CV's explaining what is physically happening in the different light curves.   He went on to talk about his upcoming observing run at the MDM observatory on Kitt Peak.  Preparation has included going through about 3000 light curves from the ZTF survey looking for interesting CV's for photometry and spectroscopy.  He walked us through some of the things he looks for in the ZTF light curves, and pointed to the ZTF data and the massive amount of information in VSX as great opportunities for amateurs to find CV's in need of typing and characterization.  Of note is that superhumps are a parameter space that amateurs "own."  The superhump period is very close to the CV orbital period and so is invaluable as that first approximation.  Timing superhump periods takes significant "stare" time that professionals don't have the chance to do.  Another opportunity is to identify ZTF and VSX CV's that are eclipsing.  In his view, the bottom line for amateurs is that many of the objects identified in surveys require the denser time sampling that amateurs are able to provide.

The next CV section meeting is planned for Feb 4 at 2PM Eastern, 17:00 UT.

Clearest skies,

Walt