Category: Outputs

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”

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”

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.

Continue reading “Variable stars in 2022”

Unprecedented rate of novae for northern observers. Final count is six in one year included the recurrent symbiotic nova RS Oph as the most important event. The photometric an spectroscopic coverage made at the Kolonica observatory is also unprecedented. The first results were presented at the Bezovec conference and will be published in the proceedings. In this article let me demonstrate the variety of light curves of these objects and how dense was our coverage. For more details see the presentation.

Besides the novae few words should be dedicated to SS Cyg. The prototype of regular dwarf novae systems. After more than century of periodic outbursts it presented typical Z Cam type behavior = standstill.

Continue reading “Greatest hits 2021”