Interesting times ahead for VS enthusiasts over the next week or so as observers (both visual and CCD) have been asked to supply data on the Dwarf Nova RX And. Prof. Christian Knigge (University of Southampton) has triggered a 'Target of Opportunity' on Chandra to observe the system which is currently undergoing an outburst (latest measure 11.346V on Oct 12.430 R. Pickard) and report their findings. You can get more information from the VSS web pages http://www.britastro.org/vss/
RX And is a popular target for VS observers, is easy to find and can be seen in outburst with small telescopes and occasionally large binoculars.
Gary
Image taken at Tarbatness Observatory Highland Scotland
An un-calibrated frame from last night. 60 sec in "V" from a lowly G3 (as my 460EX is still hooked up to my ALPY) but I managed an hour before the cloud rolled over. A bright sky but SNR was OK. AIP4WIN MMT gives Mv 13.300 (+/- 0.005), falling to 13.45 (+/- 0.05) using 9 ensemble stars, but notice the increase in error as the clouds hit.
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I'm happy to see observers taking time out to monitor RX And.
As soon as feedback on the Chandra run is received, I'll post something here for those who don't access VS mail groups.
Gary
Prof. Christian Knigge has posted preliminary feedback to this Chandra campaign on RX And here if anyone wishes to see...
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/baavss-alert/conversations/messages/...
Gary