One of the main findings that the Z Cam campaign brought is that collecting enough data in Central Europe takes a great deal of time due to the small number of usable nights. A second point is that it is still unclear to what extent data taken in places with light pollution are usable. The response to these facts is to place telescopes in a better location. What follows is information about the steps recently taken in this direction.
Continue reading “Andalusia”Category: News
Variable stars in 2024
Like nearly all stellar astronomers, the members of the Section of Variable Stars and Exoplanets of the Slovak Astronomical Society at the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Union of Astronomers (hereafter “the Section”) eagerly awaited the eruption of the recurrent nova T CrB predicted for 2024. They did not merely wait passively but had prepared photometric and spectroscopic detectors. They regularly monitored the object. But the eruption has not occurred yet. Nevertheless, recurrent novae and novae in general form an important part of this report. An interesting activity has emerged – a campaign that unexpectedly connects variable star observers with astrophotographers.
Continue reading “Variable stars in 2024”Madeira 2024
I visited Madeira 2 times this year. First visit was with my colleague from Vihorlat Observatory – Robert Adam. The main result was the installation of a dome on the terrace of the Madeira University in the Penteada campus. The Meade telescope was installed inside as well. In addition, the allsky camera was transported to UMA. The team of Marko Radeta is working on its deployment to Achada do Teixeira. For now, it is operating on the terrace by the dome.
Variable stars in 2023
This is another in a series of reports that I began preparing on my own initiative in 2021. It has become a good custom to divide it into two parts: one celestial, about the interesting behavior of stars, and one earthly, about the activities of the members of the Section of Variable Stars and Exoplanets of SAS at SAV and SZA (hereafter “the Section”). Thus, this article may also be regarded as a report on the activities of the Section.
From the novae that erupted in 2021, attention was still drawn by the slowest one, V1405 Cas, and, paradoxically, also by the fastest nova ever, V1674 Her.
Continue reading “Variable stars in 2023”Madeira 2023
Another full family trip after 3 years long gap. Besides the wellness for the rest of the family, my main goal was to make first steps in the telescope hosting project. Indeed the meetings with president of Ponta do Sol and Calheta municipalities took place. The next steps are to prepare the project of the planned facility and to get the permission of the Secretaria do Ambiente e Agricultura.
In the free time I made 567 visual estimates of variable stars. Included is the visually covered eclipse of the dwarf nova GY Cnc during the outburst. During this time no one observation was made in Kolonica observatory in Slovakia due to the bad weather. Also several events took place on the top of the island in Paul da Serra. In the following photo-gallery one can see that the sky was not optimal. Humid, hot air from the south was always present. So instead of beautiful images, the gallery demonstrates the influence of the light pollution. Pictures especially focused on the lamps of Ponta do Sol are included. The effect of new LED lamps is visible. These lamps are well shielded, so the lamps are not visible from above. But the scattered blue light strongly affects the sky.
https://rajce.net/dpv44/album/madeira-2023-astro
Look and relax. Following are several daytime and nighttime timelapses.
Variable stars in 2022
Thanks to a fortunate time-space configuration, signals about several interesting phenomena in our Galaxy reached Earth during 2022. In this post I will summarize the basic information about some of them.
First of all, novae that exploded in the period of 2020, 2021 were still active. Of them, I will mention two completely opposite objects. V1405 Cas is a very slow nova with multiple maxima and brightness variations. By the end of 2022, it was already in the nebular stage, but still brighter than 12 mag. And short-period variations with a characteristic time similar to the orbital period also appeared. However, there is no stable signal corresponding to the orbital period. In the world of cataclysmic variable stars, such behavior is usually called quasi-periodic oscillations. It will require a detailed periodic analysis. Fig. 1 shows the last few light curves.
