The Recurrent Objects Programme was set up in the mid 1980's by Guy Hurst, who realised that there was a need for a project to monitor poorly observed long period dwarf novae and other variable stars which are cataclysmic by nature. The programme has been co-ordinated by Gary Poyner since 1991.
The criteria for including a star in this programme is as follows:
There are 79 objects currently being monitored by observers (see list below), all of which have recently been added to the BAA Variable Star Section's telescopic programme in the hope for improved coverage. The recurrent objects programme is often revised, as observation proves a shorter recurrence period than was first thought, or indicates a re-classification is necessary. Any changes made to the programme will appear on these pages, as will details of outbursts and occasionally light curves.
Observers are asked to submit a monthly report to the co-ordinator, detailing observations made. This can be done by e-mail if preferred. Report forms are available upon request.
Telephone alerts can be made to the co-ordinator on 0121 605 3716 (UK) or International 44121 605 3716. This number is available all night. Notification of outbursts can also be made by e-mail on gp@star.sr.bham.ac.uk. Please mark these urgent.
Several changes to the programme recently. Three stars have been dropped, and four added. The three to go are...
FN And, V542 Cyg & V1113 Cyg
Frequent outbursts in all three of these stars have made it necessary to drop them from the programme, as one of the criteria for a star to be considered recurrent is that it should have a period of about one year or longer. As you can see from the tables below, these three have been quite active over the past couple of years alone...
940117.861 13.6 P. Schmeer 940712.003 13.5 T. Vanmunster 941205.751 13.4 P. Schmeer 950720.951 13.3 T. Vanmunster........ 950721.041 13.3 P. Schmeer...........Independent detection 950721.017 13.1 J. Pietz............. " 950721.049 13.1 G. Poyner............ " 950922.938 14.0 G. Poyner 951020.669 14.9 M. Moriyama UnconfirmedEight confirmed outbursts recorded since Jan 01 1992
930316.000 12.8 T. Vanmunster 931204.930 13.6 T. Vanmunster 940624.913 13.6 T. Vanmunster 941221.800 13.8 G. Poyner 950714.954 13.8 T. Vanmunster 951017.035 15.1 J. BortleSix confirmed outbursts recorded since March 1993.
930807.0 13.6 L. Szentasko Unconfirmed 930921.947 14.0 G. Poyner 940901.881 13.5 T. Vanmunster 950131.722 14.0 L. Szentasko 950419.027 13.7 G. Poyner 950624.965 13.9 T. Vanmunster 950825.830 14.9 L. Szentasko 951103.853 13.5 J. PietzSeven confirmed outbursts since 1993
The four stars that have been added are...
DV Dra, V1316 Cyg, V589 Her & GD552 (Cep-1)
All but GD552 are included on a recent list of suspected TOADs released by Steve Howell. DV Dra has recently undergone a faint outburst - 17.2, M. Iida - which was the first recorded since 1984. Guy Hurst has agreed to prepare charts for DV Dra, V1316 Cyg & V589 Her, which will hopefully become available very soon
GD552 remains a mystery. It has no variable star designation yet, probably because it has been underobserved. In VSNET-OBS 1251, Taichi Kato writes...." A thorough spectroscopic study can be found in Hessman & Hopp 1990, Astron. Astrophys. 228, 387, which gives an orbital period of 0.07134 day. The spectrum does not differ significantly from those of quiescent SU UMa-type dwarf novae, despite extremely strong Balmer emission lines in GD 552. Therefore we have good reason that GD552 is a very good candidate for monitoring outbursts (probably first ever!). GD 552 is at mv=16.5-17 in quiescence. Outbursts may reach well within reach of small telescopes".
A finder chart for GD552, taken from VSNET and produced by software written by Dave McAdam is available upon request.
STAR RA (2000) DEC RANGE TYPE HP And 00 19.09 +41 28 10.5-[14.5p UG: LS And 00 33.10 +41.58 11.7-20.5p NA: LL And 00 41.51 +26 37 13.0-[17v UGSU V452 Cas 00 52.19 +53 52 14.0-17.5: UG: XY Psc 01 10.11 +03 33 13.0-[20p UG: HT Cas 01 10.13 +60 05 12.6-19.3v UGSS/EA WX Cet 01 17.04 -17 56 9.5-18.5v UG: V635 Cas 01 18.32 +63 44 13.5-16.3v XNGP UV Per 02 10.08 +57 11 11.0-17.5v UGSU UW Per 02 12.30 +57 05 13.5-18.8p? UG: PQ And 02 29.29 +40 03 10.1-19V UGWZ NSV00895 02 39.02 +43 08 11.7-[20p UGorSN UW Tri 02 45.17 +33 31 14.7-[21p UGWZ? QY Per 03 15.38 +42 28 14.0-20.0v UGSU SV Ari 03 25.03 +19 50 12.0-22pg N: GK Per 03 31.11 +43 54 0.2-14.0v NA V518 Per 04 21.18 +32 54 12.0-[20B ? HW Tau 05 03.41 +26 23 11.5-[17p UGSS V616 Mon 06 22.45 -00 20 11.2-20.2B XND CI Gem 06 30.06 +22 19 14.7-18.5p UGSU: CG CMa 07 04.05 -23 46 13.7-[15.7p N: AQ CMi 07 14.35 +08 48 14.5-16.5p UG: SW UMa 08 36.42 +53 29 9.7-16.5V UGSU EG Cnc 08 43.04 +27 52 11.9-17:V NL/UG: BZ UMa 08 53.44 +57 49 10.5-15.3B UGSU? AK Cnc 08 55.19 +11 20 13.0-[17p UGSU T Pyx 09 04.41 -32 23 7.0-15.77B NR DV UMa 09 46.37 +44 47 14.0-19.8B UG+E U Leo 10 24.03 +14 00 10.5-15.0v N:: SS LMi 10 34.06 +31 08 15.0-[21p UGorN RZ Leo 11 37.16 +01 49 10.5-17.5p UG: DO Dra 11 43.39 +71 41 10.0-15.8v UG BC UMa 11 52.16 +49 15 10.9-18.3B UGSU TV Crv 12 20.24 -18 27 12.0-19.0B UG W Com 12 20.36 +28 12 14.5-16.5 QSO AL Com 12 32.26 +14 21 13.0-20.0p UGSU EX Hya 12 52.25 -29 15 9.6-13.99v UGSU 3C 279 12 55.41 -05 47 11.0-18.0pg QSO GO Com 12 56.37 +26 37 13.1-20.0p UGSU HV Vir 13 21.03 +01 53 11.0-20.5B UGWZ UZ Boo 14 44.01 +22 01 11.5-[16.1v UGWZ T CrB 15 59.30 +25 55 2.0-11.3p NR U Sco 16 22.31 -17 53 8.8-19p NR V589 Her 16 22.07 +19 22 14.1-[17.5p UG V592 Her 16 30.58 +21 17 12.3-[22p UG: V2110 Oph 17 43.44 -22 46 12.0-22V NC V1172 Sgr 17 50.02 -20 41 9.0-18p N: RS Oph 17 50.13 -06 43 4.3-12.5V NR V745 Sco 17 55.18 -33 14 9.9-21? NR DV Dra 18 17.25 +50 48 15.0B-[21.0B UGWZ: V2204 Oph 18 26.02 +11 55 13.7-16.8B NL: V1017 Sgr 18 32.04 -29 23 6.2-14.73B ZAND: V3645 Sgr 18 35.50 -18 42 12.6-18p NR: Nova Sct81 18 46.41 -04 57 8.0v-? N:: CI Aql 18 52.03 -01 29 11.0-15.6p NorUG HR Lyr 18 53.25 +29 14 6.5-15.8p Nova EU Sct 18 56.13 -04 13 8.4-18p NR: FS Sct 18 58.17 -05 24 10.1-18p NA: DM Lyr 18 58.44 +30 16 13.6-18p UG V493 Lyr 19 01.34 +42 54 13.2-18.0 UG V795 Cyg 19 34.34 +31 32 13.4-[17.9p UGSS V1454 Cyg 19 53.39 +35 22 13.9-[17.0p UGSS EY Cyg 19 54.37 +32 22 11.4-15.7p UGSS V725 Aql 19 56.45 +10 50 13.7- ? UG AW Sge 19 58.37 +16 41 13.8-[17.5p UG V337 Cyg 19 59.51 +39 14 14.4-16.5p UG: V1028 Cyg 20 00.57 +56 57 13.0-18p UGSU V1363 Cyg 20 06.12 +33 43 13.0-[17.6p UGZ WZ Sge 20 07.36 +17 42 7.0-15.0p UGWZ V1316 Cyg 20 12.13 +42 45 14.5-17.5p UGSU: V404 Cyg 20 24.04 +33 52 11.0:-20.5B Nova TY Vul 20 41.44 +25 35 14.0-19:p UG VY Aqr 21 12.09 -08 50 8.4-17.2p UGWZ EF Peg 21 15.04 +14 04 10.7-[17p UGSU V632 Cyg 21 36.04 +40 26 12.6-17.5p UGSS V1251 Cyg 21 40.52 +48 40 12.5-[16p UGSU Scovil Cyg 21 42.18 +31 34 12.8-? UG: GD552 22 50.7 +63 29 ??? ?? DX And 23 29.47 +43 45 10.9-16.4p UGSS V630 Cas 23 48.53 +51 28 12.3-17.1p UG: * V493 Lyr formerly S10930 Lyr V518 Per formerly GRO J0422+32 TV Crv formerly 1215-17 Crv
Charts for these stars are available from the Editor, Guy Hurst.
This object was detected in outburst independently by Jensen & Pietz on November 20th. Observations reported on VSNET indicate that variations in the order of 0.6 mag have been recorded over a short time period ~1 hour. It has been suggested that what we are witnessing are large amplitude superhumps, although this has not yet been confirmed. The last outburst which occurred in August 1994 lasted for ~15d, but did not reveal any short period variations. What is going on? The most recent estimates to be posted are from Eric Broens (Mol, Belgium), who observed V493 Lyr at mv=14.4 on Nov 28th. Please continue to monitor this star closely, and if possible make estimates every 15 minutes or so.
I would like to thank all observers who have contributed to the programme over the past year. Keep up the excellent work!
G. Poyner
(Last update 28/11/95)
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