Needed: QZ Vul photometry TOMORROW (Dec 31)

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Sat, 12/31/2016 - 04:21

<p>Dear wonderful AAVSO observers,</p>

<p>I am an astronomy professor at Michigan State, and I am writing to ask your help.on a multi-wavelength project. On Dec 31 (tomorrow!), our team will be observing the accreting black&nbsp;hole binary QZ Vul, simultaneously with both the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array radio telescope. These are very difficult&nbsp;observations to set up, and we're hoping to also get simultaneous data in the optical.</p>

<p>The Chandra and VLA observations are set to run Dec 31 12:30 -- Jan 1 04:30 UT (so, a 16-hour time window). We're hoping AAVSO observers can obtain&nbsp;filtered photometry (BVR, ideally) during this time. For observers in the north, the object is only visible at evening twilight, so ideally,&nbsp;multiple people will try to observe it on Dec 31 evening. Observations during this period would be most useful, but additional data for ~2 days&nbsp;before and after would also be useful.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, QZ Vul is pretty faint. It is most recently estimated at V ~ 20--21 mag by GAIA. AAVSO info on it here:</p>

<p><a>https://www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=detail.top&amp;oid=38509</a></…;

<p>However, I'm optimistic that some AAVSO members in darker sites or with larger scopes could observe&nbsp;it. We care most about a calibrated deep&nbsp;single-epoch of photometry, and time series monitoring isn't needed at this time.</p>

<p>Would it be possible to get&nbsp;a hand with QZ Vul? Thank you so much! Happy New Year!</p>

<p>Laura Chomiuk<br />
&nbsp;</p>