[Aavso-photometry] OT_J0711+44 - third night

[Arto Oksanen]

This year looks really promising, almost every night has been clear in
Finland! (this cant last long ...)

I got already my third night of data of the new Catalina transient.
The last run was my longest, 10.5 hours and covering five eclipses.
The eclipses are still centered on the one magnitude humps and are
very sharp and very deep. I observed the first eclipse of last night
by using 10 second exposures and short dead time giving four
measurements per minute, but even that is too slow for seeing any
gradual fading. I have been advised by Dr. Darragh O'Donoghue (SAAO)
that this is typical for eclipsing AM Her stars, as they have very
tiny luminous areas near the poles of the white dwarf (the extreme
case of aurora borealis!). The various dips on the light curve are
caused by the matter streams from the secondary star eclipsing the
bright spot(s) on the white dwarf.

All night light curve:
http://murtoinen.dyndns.org/ccd/OT_J0711+44/OT_J071126.0+440405_20090104.png

And the closeup of the first eclipse:
http://murtoinen.dyndns.org/ccd/OT_J0711+44/eclipse_20090104_1900UT.gif

It would be very interesting to observe this star with a large
telescope and lets say one second sampling rate. Anyone having access
to one?  :-)

br,

arto

-- 
Arto Oksanen
arto.oksanen at jklsirius.fi
Muurame, Finland