[Aavso-photometry] Target Oppoprtunities

Tue Jun 10 13:53:07 EDT 2008

Brian,

While not a direct answer to your question I am taking the liberty of including a target source listing that I prepared for folks asking similar questions, i.e. target opportunities.

The list pretty much covers the sources of target opportunities that I check and include in my own target listing.  My typical target list usually has around 30 objects on it, which can take up to three clear nights to cover, FYI.  Then if I am doing time series on some of the targets on my current listing it might take me a month to get through the list.... all depends on the weather gods.

If you are interested in targets with quicker fluxuations you might check out RR Lyrae stars which typically cycle in a few days. If you are after something even faster the Delta Scuti stars often cycle in hours.

Here is a site that lists RR Lyrae Stars:

http://dbrr.ast.obs-mip.fr/

At the end of the following I will include a list of mostly Delta Scuti stars prepared by fellow AAVSO member, Wolfgang Renz.

ad Astra

Tim Crawford CTX
Arch Cape Observatory

PS - anyone responding to this thread should remove this ORIGINAL email when replying, because of it's length.... would be quite annoying to all to see this lengthly email repeated over and over.

Variable Star Target Opportunities
For All Levels of Experience

If you are just beginning to make
variable star magnitude estimates (and especially if a new visual observer)
then the first place you should look for target opportunities is the American
Association of Variable Star Observers - AAVSO’s “Stars Easy-To-Observe” web page:

www.aavso.org/observing/aids/easystars.shtml

The “A” Charts are great for
Binoculars, by the way. Hint to CCD observers, you will probably only want to
check out VS targets that are listed with “E” Charts as these have a narrower
FOV.

For those with a bit more experience
I guess each of us probably needs to find a comfort zone with specific types of
VS that appeal to us, supplemented by special requests from HQ.  

Also, in addition to the suggestions
that I have herein, every one needs to check out the Observing Programs of the
AAVSO web page:

www.aavso.org/observing/programs/

Some observers prefer targets that
provide short term light curves, some observers prefer targets that provide
long term light curves while others have little interest in the curves
themselves, simply preferring to be challenged by the photometry itself.

Then there are the many observers
who prefer to concentrate on specific types of Variable Stars, i.e. Mira’s, T
Tauri stars, CV's (cataclysmic variables), Cepheids, RR Lyrae stars, Delta
Scuti stars etc. (in my own case I guess I lean towards the CV's and other
eruptive targets).

In fact if you “google” a specific
type of star (or do a AAVSO site search) you have a good chance of finding a
web page or site that lists stars of that type.  You just then need to make sure that the AAVSO has a chart
for a specific target or it is listed in the validation file:

www.aavso.org/observing/aids/validation.shtml

Actually, however, the target does
not really need to be in the validation file, if you have a chart/FOV with
“good” sequence values (Henden, Summer, Landolt, etc) then you can still report
the star with the designation of 9999+99.

The below list simply reflects my
own "prejudices,"and is not in any particular
priority order (with the exception of the first 3 items which should always be
every one’s priority, IMO). There are lots of other options and the “Observing
Programs of the AAVSO “ list can help you explore some of them.

However, again, I would strongly
urge you to check on the Campaign page from time to time and to subscribe to
the Alert
Notices, regardless of how your own
personal observing program develops.

With well over 5,000 targets within
the AAVSO database alone, there is no lack of opportunities.  After awhile you begin to realize that
there is a limit to just how many individual targets you can deal with each
"season."  

My own observing list (and by the
way ASTROPLANNER is a fantastic tool for this purpose) never gets over 36
targets and typically has only about 25 or so which generally will require 2-3
nights to observe each one just one time with a CCD; Visual observers will be
able to maintain much larger lists as they can make quicker observations and
cover many more targets in a given amount of time than can a typical CCD
observer.  

Along the way, I hope some other
AAVSO observers will also give you some examples of their targets so that you
can have a well-rounded view of some of the many options being exercised by
AAVSO observers. 

Oh, by the way, there is no such
thing as a dumb question and this a great place to get some help.  You might also want to check out the
chat line from time to time as there you can often can an immediate answer to
your question (feel free to also email me).
http://www.aavso.org/aavso/chat.shtml
Variable Star Target Opportunities
1)
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) Campaign Targets

www.aavso.org/news/campaigns.shtml

2)  Alert Notices (AAVSO)

www.aavso.org/publications/alerts/

3)  Targets from the NMO (Need More
Observations) List (AAVSO)

www.aavso.org/publications/bulletin/

List of Stars Needing More
Observations is several “bullets” down the page.

4)  Polars & AGN's from the GTN list

http://gtn.sonoma.edu/participants/catalog/index.php

5)
CV's from Mike's Watch List

http://home.mindspring.com/~mikesimonsen/cvnet/index.html

6)  CV’s From the Center For Backyard
Astronomy (CBA)

http://cba.phys.columbia.edu/

7)  CV's from the HQS List

http://deneb.astro.warwick.ac.uk/phsdaj/HQS_Public/HQS_Public.html

8)  I also belong to the British (BAAVSS)
alert group and will monitor some of the targets
that they send out requests for.

www.britastro.org/vss/alert.htm

9)  HMXB’s (High Mass X-Ray Binary Systems)

http://homepage.usask.ca/~ges125/AAVSO_HMXB_Charts.html

10)  Intermediate Polars

http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/mukai/iphome/iphome.html

Remember:  There is no such thing as
a dumb question!

Delta Scuti Type?

> RA2000     DE2000    GCVS        Period  AmpV   Vmag   SpType
> 00 55 18.0
+23 09.8  GP And      0.0787  0.520  10.80  A3
> 02 09 30.0
+57 57.6  HD13038     0.0196  0.005   8.56  A5V
> 02 36 03.0
+06 25.9  DX Cet      0.1040  0.200   7.00  A5
> 02 37 32.0
+71 18.3  AB Cas      0.0583  0.050  10.17  A3V+K1V
> 02 48 56.0
+69 38.1  RZ Cas      0.0156  0.020   6.26  A3V+K0IV
> 03 43 43.0
+24 22.5  V624 Tau    0.0240  0.010   8.24  A7V
> 04 28 40.0
+15 52.3  theta2 Tau  0.0756  0.020   3.40  A7III
> 04 33 36.0
+23 41.0  V831 Tau    0.0643  0.600  15.79  F0V
> 07 33 32.0
+47 48.2  TV Lyn      0.2407  0.440  11.45  A6
> 07 41 11.0
+76 04.4  Y Cam       0.0665  0.040  10.54  A9IV+K1IV
> 07 52 47.0
+01 35.8  AD CMi      0.1230  0.300   9.39  F0III
> 08 09 36.0
+44 28.3  SZ Lyn      0.1205  0.510   9.44  A9
> 08 18 47.0
+00 17.0  AI Hya      0.1380  0.020   9.90  F0+F2
> 08 40 52.0
+09 49.5  VZ Cnc      0.1784  0.500   7.73  A7III
> 09 18 17.0
+46 09.2  BE Lyn      0.0959  0.390   8.82  A3
> 09 36 53.0
+44 04.0  AE UMa      0.0860  0.440  11.27  A9
> 09 48 45.0
+43 39.9  HD84800     0.0240  0.005   7.79  A4V
> 09 50 59.0
+59 02.3  upsilon UMa 0.1327  0.050   3.78  F0IV
> 14 16 23.0
+46 05.3  lambda Boo  0.0230  0.002   4.18  A0p
> 14 32 05.0
+38 18.5  gamma Boo   0.0730  0.050   3.04  A7III
> 15 24 07.0
+36 52.0  YZ Boo      0.1041  0.420  10.57  A8
> 15 34 48.0
+10 32.3  delta Ser   0.1557  0.040   3.80  F0IV
> 16 31 18.0
+11 59.9  DY Her      0.1486  0.510  10.46  F4III
> 19 29 01.0
+01 57.0  V1431 Aql   0.0210  0.004   5.79  A0V
> 20 03 16.0
+58 57.3  XX Cyg      0.1349  0.800  11.87  A5
> 20 08 50.0
+48 54.7  V2109 Cyg   0.1861  0.160   7.51  F0
> 20 11 19.0
+26 31.3  V382 Vul    0.0530  0.030  10.49  F5
> 21 04 33.0
+50 47.1  V1719 Cyg   0.2673  0.310   8.01  F2III
> 22 15 02.0
+57 02.6  epsilon Cep 0.0412  0.020   4.18  F0IV
> 22 37 48.0
+01 32.1  CY Aqr      0.0610  0.710  10.93  A5
> 23 08 51.0
+17 12.9  DY Peg      0.0729  0.540  10.36  A6
> 
> Clear skies
>   Wolfgang

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