[AAVSO-DIS] V1412 Aql: a simulation

[Christian Knigge]

Dear Michel & AAVSOers,

I hope you don't mind me as a professional jumping in on this bandwagon, 
but I just wanted to let you know that I found the AAVSO Special Notice on 
this object so interesting that I got in touch with Arlo Landolt and, 
together with some other colleagues, have started monitoring this object 
with the robotic Liverpool Telescope (and, to a lesser extent, the Faulkes 
Telescopes). We've had almost daily coverage for about a month now, and 
while I've not yet had a chance to do proper data reduction and 
photometry, I've inspected the nightly images and have also not yet seen 
any sign of an eclipse so far. Coverage should continue at this rate for 
as long as V1412 stays visible this season.

However, the real reason for this post is that I thought Michel 
Bonnardeau's simulation was *extremely* useful and interesting -- great 
job! I will see if I can get the Liverpool Telescope to cover some of the 
upcoming "optimal" epochs for observations (i.e. the most likely times of 
eclipse), but since the award we have on this telescope is for monitoring 
type observations, it's not clear if I will get extra coverage during 
these times.

With this in mind, I really just wanted to second the suggestion to hit 
this object hard, especially on Michel's suggested likely eclipes dates. 
And even beyond those dates, please don't assume that the LT and FT 
coverage removes the need for amateur observations: another thing Michel's 
simulations show quite nicely is that *breadth* of coverage is critical -- 
even though the daily sampling we get with LT/FT is very nice, it only 
provides a brief snapshot each night...

Cheers,

Christian

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  Dr. Christian Knigge
  Reader
  School of Physics & Astronomy       phone: +44-(0)23-8059-3955
  University of Southampton           fax  : +44-(0)23-8059-3910
  Southampton SO17 1BJ                email: christian at astro.soton.ac.uk
  United Kingdom
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