Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Wed, 08/26/2015 - 21:18

A second campaign on a (mostly) new set of 17 cataclysmic variables is announced in AAVSO Alert Notice 527. Please see the notice for details, targets, and instructions.

All images should be posted in this thread and all discussion on this campaign should take place here so everything is in one place.

Many thanks and good observing,

Elizabeth Waagen, AAVSO HQ

Another successful campaign

I am so looking forward to another very successful campaign!

Thanks a lot and clear skies,

Roque Ruiz-Carmona, PI

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Dry Run/clouds

Hello Rogue

I tried the 17 CV2 fields last night as a dry run.  I was able to get 3-4, then the clouds rolled in the in South and the East.  I plan to try again tonight. I will be on the 24 inch at Maria Mitchell.

Gary

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Meyer Observatory is imaging

Earlier in the day we had a forecast of clear for both nights.  We have high, thin cirrus which would be hardly noticeable if not for the moon.  66% humidity, wind light and variable.  I am still managing 700-1000 SNR.

Willie Strickland

Meyer Observatory, Coryell County, TX

http://cleardarksky.com//c/PaulMeyObTXkey.html

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
17 images

Sky was variable with high, thin cirrus most of the night.  Seeing was 2.4-2.7 arc seconds except for a period around midnight when it was closer to 3 arcsecs.  Princeton Instruments 1300b camera, Custom Scientific UBVRI filter set.  24" custom built, RC telescope.

 

Affiliation
URSA Astronomical Association, Variable Star Section (Finland) (URSA)
Hankasalmi 2015-08-31

Here is one set of unfiltered images taken last night at Hankasalmi observatory, Finland. I took five sets and will stack them later today. 

Equipment: 0.40m RCOS 16RC, Paramount ME, SBIG STL-1001E, no filter, 60s exposure

Conditions: moonlight, some scattered clouds

best regards, 

arto

 

Affiliation
URSA Astronomical Association, Variable Star Section (Finland) (URSA)
Median combined images

Here are my final median combined images. Because of clouds there was three to five images that were used per each field.

I hope these are usefull.

arto 

Hi,
Here are 5 images from

Hi,

Here are 5 images from last night.

Each time :

- 3x50s exposures, median addition

- Corrected Dall Kirkham 17" F/6.8

- Camera FLI PL16803

- Clear filter

- Date is in the file name

- Observatory code : G40

 

Emmanuel

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
13 very poor images

Hello Rogue and all;

I had lots of humidity here.  These are pretty poor images, but for the sake of a limited two day campaign, I will post them.  There might be one or two that have some use.  I got 13 of the 17.  Just ran out of sky.  I was on the island of Nantucket last night, on the RC24.  I got better data the night before with my 12 inch.  I did not get flats and the camera has been off the scope, so I used old flats.  I will try again tonight.  

WGR

Gary

Let's hope weather is good

Dear all,

Thank you so much for your work and your effort!! I am checking the images now, I'll let you know what I find.

Best regards from La Palma, and clear skies for tonight.

Roque

Quiescence confirmed!

Hi all,

Using all images, I can confirm the quiescence of all targets.

I estimate that PTFS1119h is 0.55 mag above its quiescent level, which is within expectations.

Let's see if one of the targets goes off tonight or tomorrow :)

Thank you all, and clear skies!

Roque

Affiliation
URSA Astronomical Association, Variable Star Section (Finland) (URSA)
Hankasalmi second night

Here are my images of last night. The sky was clear but conditions were humid and the observatory was closed by high humidity alert after two sequences of images were taken. I enclose here the second set of images. The other set is available by request. These are 60s unfiltered exposures. 

PTFS1201n field was infested with the Moon and the images were overexposed.

arto 

Hi,
Here are 5 more images

Hi,

Here are 5 more images from last night.

Each time :

- 3x50s exposures, median addition

- Corrected Dall Kirkham 17" F/6.8

- Camera FLI PL16803

- Clear filter

- Date is in the file name

- Observatory code : G40

 

Emmanuel

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Second Night Better, still hi humidity

Hello All

I was able to get somewhat better images at the beginning of the night, but later in the night the marine layer moved in.  15 images posted.  I did get good flats this night.  I would estimage PTFS1119h  at 0.88 mags brighter in V than the ref star S1 in red box.  Both 1201n and 1101aa were affected by the moon.  I did not get anything for the former.  All images in V.  

WGR

Gary

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Images of V344Lyr and V1504Cyg from RIT

We took images of V344Lyr and V1504Cyg at the RIT Observatory (Rochester, NY) last night. Latitude +43.0757, Longitude 77.6647 West, altitude 168 m.  Meade 12-inch LX200 with SBIG ST-9E CCD camera and V-band filter.   Conditions were decent, but the sky was bright due to haze.  Observers were Kaitlin Schmidt (physics undergrad), Jen Connelly (faculty) and myself. 

We stacked about 40 images, each 30 seconds long, to make the median-combined images attached here.  The V344 Lyr image shows nothing at the location of the target, the V1504 Cyg image shows a smudge that might be my imagination.  The limiting magnitude is around V=16, maybe 16.5, so I'm afraid these might not help much.  The images were acquired around UT Sep 2 02:13 (V344 Lyr) and UT Sep 2 03:02 (V1504 Cyg).

I can supply many more details upon request, if you wish.   Good luck!

         Michael Richmond

 

Final update

Dear all,

Thank you for your interest in this campaign, and for all your images. They provided me with all the information I needed. Thanks a lot for your effort!

However, none of the targets was found in outburst so I did not study any of them :( This is really bad luck, as I usually find 1-2 outburst every 10 selected targets (that is what the selection aims for) . Of course, this is not in anybody's hands. I am observing other CVs reported in outburst by the ASSASN CV patrol, and one PTF CV that was not in the 17 selected. 

More campaigns will follow in the future, since this is an ongoing research programme. I count on you!

Thank you so much. Clear skies!

Roque

New campaign monitoring CVs from the PTF database

Dear all,

I have a new observing run at William Herschel Telescope in La Palma this week, and again, I could use your help monitoring the state of some of my favourite targets. I apologize because this comes in a very short notice. Like in previous campaigns (https://www.aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-527), I only need to know if the systems are in outburst or not, so non-detections are also useful for the faintest systems. One image per target on two separate nights will suffice, especially the night of May 24.

One image of every target should be obtained:

 - between 23 May 17:00UT and 24 May 17:00 UT
 - between 24 May 17:00UT and 25 May 17:00 UT

***The images must be posted to the thread no later than 25 May 18:00 UT.***

In the table below you can find the list of targets with magnitudes in quiescence (Q) and outburst (O):

PTF name      RA (2000)     DEC (2000)      Primary name                            Filter      Mag Q   Mag O   Priority

PTFS1112g    12:27:40,85    +51:39:24.9    GP CVn                                           g'/clear    19,10    14,30    High
PTFS1112j    12:50:23,81    +66:55:25.5    OV Dra                                               CR        19,00    15,80    High
PTFS1114ag    14:33:17,78    +10:11:23.0    SDSS J143317.78+101123.3             CV        21,00    18,60    High
PTFS1115x    15:01:37,22    +55:01:22.9    SDSS J150137.22+550123.4              CR        19,40    16,40    High
PTFS1115y    15:02:40,93    +33:34:23.7    NZ Boo                                                  V        19,60    13,70    High
PTFS1115z    15:07:22,22    +52:30:40.2    OV Boo                                                CV        20,60    18,00    High
PTFS1115ag    15:44:53,62    +25:53:48.9    SDSS J154453.60+255348.8             CV        18,00    15,70    High
PTFS1115am    15:56:54,48    +21:07:19.0    QZ Ser                                              V        17,49    12,70    Medium
PTFS1115an    15:56:56,92    +35:23:36.7    BT CrB                                              CR        19,20    16,70    High
PTFS1116al    16:25:01,76    +39:09:26.5    V844 Her                                              B        17,50    12,50    Medium
PTFS1116ae    16:25:20,30    +12:03:08.8    SDSS J162520.29+120308.7             CV        20,00    13,10    Medium
PTFS1116ca    16:30:56,40    +21:16:58.5    V592 Her                                             V         21,4      12,30    Medium
PTFS1116s    16:42:48,52    +13:47:51.4    SDSS J164248.52+134751.4               CR        19,00    15,20    Medium
PTFS1117b    17:02:13,26    +32:29:54.0    V1239 Her                                         V/clear    19,10    13,70    High
PTFS1117r    17:27:58,13    +38:00:22.5    MASTER OT J172758.09+380021.5      CR        18,00    14,10    Medium
PTFS1118x    18:44:39,17    +43:22:28.1    V0344 Lyr                                             V        19,00    13,80    High
PTFS1119h    19:28:56,45    +43:05:37.3    V1504 Cyg                                            P        17,40    13,50    High
PTFS1120q    20:48:17,87    -06:10:45.0    1SDSS J204817.85-061044.8               CR        20,00    14,90    High
PTFS1120t    20:59:14,87    -06:12:20.5    QT Aqr                                                  CV        19,30    15,20    High
PTFS1121y    21:00:14,11    +00:44:46.0    QU Aqr                                                 V        18,80    16,10    High

Attached is a pdf with all finding charts (Please note that there are two versions of the finding chart for PTFS1115z). I hope this helps.

Thank you very much to all, and sorry if you wanted to help but this came too late for you to react.

Clear skies,

Roque Ruiz-Carmona

 

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
AAVSO Alert Notice 543 on 20 CVs campaign

AAVSO Alert Notice 543 announces this 2016 campaign on 20 CVs.  The campaign is already underway and concludes tonight. This post is being made on the forum thread from 2015's second campaign because that is where the PI announced the 2016 targets and his request for coverage. He did this at the good recommendation of AAVSO staff who were covering for Elizabeth Waagen, who usually handles observing campaign requests and who was away. To minimize confusion, a new thread for this 2016 campaign was not created.  Please note that the pdf file of finder charts in the PI's post and the one in the Alert Notice are the same list even though they have different names.

Good observing!

Elizabeth

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
PTFS1115x SDSS J150137.22+550123.4 - No Outburst

2016-05-25, 02:50:38 UT

V-band

300s

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
PTFS1115ag SDSS J154453.60+255348.8 - No outburst

2016-05-25, 03:21:18 UT

V-band

300s

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
PTFS1116ae SDSS J162520.29+120308.7 - No Outburst

2016-05-25, 04:02:25 UT

V-band

300s

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
PTFS1116s SDSS J164248.52+134751.4 - No Outburst

2016-05-25, 04:22:40 UT

V-band

300s

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
PTFS1117r MASTER OT J172758.09+380021.5 - No Outburst

2016-05-25, 04:42:28 UT

V-band

300s

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
The Following Alert Notice 543 Targets Were Not Observed

I managed to obtain images for 17/20 targets using the Newcastle Observatory 0.4m Meade SCT and QSI 516 CCD through a Johnson V filter.

The sky conditions were clear with an Waning Gibbous Moon (89% illumination) >30 degrees distant from any one target. 

Some images had poor tracking, and/or affected by below average seeing. However, this did not impede a check for outburst.

Due to high airmass and time constraints, I was not able to observe the last three stars (in order of RA) on the list:

PTFS1120q    SDSS J204817.85-061044.8

PTFS1120t    QT Aqr

PTFS1121y    QU Aqr

 

Hi,Just V1239 Herculis for

Hi,

Just V1239 Herculis for me. The star is not in outburst on 2016-05-25 00h58 UT.

Image taken with Slooh space robotic telescope T2 at Mt Teide, Canary Islands.

17" Corrected Dall Kirkham F/6.8 + FLI PL16803

 

Emmanuel

Monitoring of CVs extended until Friday 27 May

Dear all,

I have just been notified that the there are technical issues with the alignment of the optics of William Herschel Telescope, and the instrument cannot be mounted until Friday 27. That means that my observing run will start on Friday rather than tonight. Moreover, the photometric camera will not be available, and I won't be able to check the state of the systems to pick the ones in which outbursts have just started. 

For this reason, it will be very timely if we could continue with the monitoring three more nights. So far, all systems observed are in quiescence. If any of them is found in outbursts in the following nights, it means that the outburst has started recently, and those systems are exactly what I aim to study. The images before the run starts will inform about systems in outburst, and I will study those systems. The images taken on the night of May 27 will provide additional information about the evolution of the outburst, or may identify new outbursts in case all targets remain in quiescence up to that point. New outbursts detected on the night of May 27 may change the targets I will study.

One image of every target should be obtained:

 - between 25 May 17:00UT and 26 May 17:00 UT, posted no later than 27 May 18:00 UT
 - between 26 May 17:00UT and 27 May 17:00 UT, posted no later than 27 May 18:00 UT
 - between 27 May 17:00UT and 28 May 17:00 UT, posted no later than 28 May 18:00 UT 

***On May 27, if you identify an outburst, please report it immediately in the forum (you can post the image later).***

I hope this is clear enough; but if you have questions, don't hesitate contacting me.

Thanks a lot for all your help! I appreciate all your efforts.

Clear skies,

Roque

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Special Notice #416 issued on campaign extension

AAVSO Special Notice #416 repeats the information included in the PI's post regarding the extension of the 20 CVs campaign. It also includes the link to AAVSO Alert Notice 543, which announced the campaign, has the list of targets, and gives the link to the pdf images of the finder charts to be used.

Thank you for your valuable contributions, and Good observing!

Elizabeth Waagen, AAVSO HQ

Affiliation
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren (Belgium) (VVS)
Monitoring of CVs extended until Friday 27 May

Observations made by Public obs Astrolab Iris Belgium

Using a 68 cm F4.8 Newton telescope

GP CVN : no outburst

OV DRA : no outburst

SDSS J143317.78+101123.3: no outburts

All observations are in AAVSO database.

Regards 

 

Franky Dubois

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Monitoring of CVs extended until Friday 27 May

Clear skies tonight (Thursday) with average transparency and above-average seeing. I'll try and get in as many targets as possible.

Michael

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
PTFS1112g GP CVn - No Outburst

2016-05-27, 02:18:19 UT

V-band

300s

Note: tracking error, but not severe enough to affect outburst detection.