The Z CamPaign (Abstract)

Volume 38 number 1 (2010)

Michael Simonsen

Abstract

(Abstract only) Z Cam type dwarf novae are described as being those CVs that sometimes after an outburst do not return to their original brightness, but instead, get hung up on the way to quiescence in what is called a “standstill.” If it doesn’t exhibit standstills it isn’t a Z Cam star. There is no strong agreement between the various CV catalogs as to which few dozen or so stars are actually Z Cam type systems. If any significant percentage of the number of Z Cams eventually proves not to be Z Cam, the remaining few represent a fairly rare and unique class of stars worthy of further investigation. We will describe a campaign to observe many of the known and suspected Z Cam stars and the science goals we hope to achieve through this campaign.