SDSS1556...When your luck...

SDSS1556 is in outburst, well would you believe it ! This is one of my four Bradford Robotic items but due to working till late the last three days I had not arranged any jobs. Still as a consolation my copy of AIP4WIN turned up on Tuesday so today I am going to unpack, load the software, and read up on this today and process some images.

Regards

V5558 Sgr (Nova Saggitarius)

This extract is from the AAVSO site and was a second update after the discovery in April by Yukio Sakurai from Japan.

"V5558 Sgr, a slow nova that has been rising since April(see Special Notices 44, 45, and 48) exhibited a briefbrightening over the past few days, and may now be trendingdownwards. The most recent observations as of this noticeplace the star at V ~ 8.1 at JD 2454280.0 after reachingm(vis) ~ 7.8. Both visual and CCD observers are stronglyencouraged to continue monitoring this peculiar object;BVRI observations are especially encouraged, as they willprovide important information on the spectral evolutionof this nova. We will add comparison stars to VSP if andwhen it brightens beyond the current bright limit of thechart (mag 7.6). We note that the extremely slow novaV723 Cas (Nova Cas 1995) exhibited a short rapid risebefore finally beginning to decline about 100 days afteroutburst, and a similar event may be happening here.Coordinates are: RA 18:10:18.26, Dec -18:46:51.9 (J2000)"

Now currently showing at 6.5mag (sorry) I have just been emailed to say it has faded to 7.5mag this object will make very interesting observing over the next few months...

Regards

Gary Poyner and Uni of Warwick

The link below is for Gary's interview with Dr Boris Gaensicke as mentioned in an earlier post, highlighting the work amateur astronomers do to help the professionals.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/icast/archive/week27/

Regards

Bradford robotic results...

OK, I am registering these jobs everyday with the above now, SDSS1556, SDSS1637, SDSS1712 and SDSS1730. First results back this morning. This is an ongoing project which I hope to run over the next 6months.

Regards

R CrB (R Coronae Borealis)

Abstract:

"The Coronae Borealis stars are one of the longest known classes of variable star. They fade dramatically and unpredictably by factors of up to one thousand within a few weeks. Over succeeding months, they gradually recover their original brightness. This spectacular fading is caused by the formation of sooty dust clouds above the surface of the star. The surfaces of CB stars are unusually poor in hydrogen, and rich in carbon and nitrogen, which implies that they are the remnants of evolved stars".


A lot has been going on with R CrB, John Toone reported it varying between 6.1 to 6.4mag in June 2007 whereas it had been at a point of 5.9mag in March to May 2007. A sudden fading is now expected so I will report when this happens to any great extent, Des Loughney in Scotland has reported as I type that it is now down to 6.73.

Keep an watch on this one.

Regards

After an absence..

I do apologise for the absence of posts but real life matters do get in the way occasionally, will post updates this weekend on what has occured over the last month .

Regards