V386 Ser to be observed with HST

Hello! I've been imaging V386 SER nightly when conditions allow.

    Intensive monitoring is desired from 27-May till 2-June. How frequently are images desired during the intensive monitoring period? Thank you and best regards.

Mike

Hi Observers,

Dr. Paula Szkody informs us that the exact time for the HST observation of V386 Ser has been scheduled for 2019 May 30 04:36-10:15 UT. This is the night of May 29/30 for US observers.

Thus, the critical night will be May 28/29 (Wednesday night)  to get a measurement to HST so they can proceed to the observation. It will be essential to have positive observations from this night to satisfy the HST planners, so observers with suitable equipment are urged to obtain positive measurements of this faint star.

Please switch from nightly monitoring to intensive monitoring (several times per night) on May 26/27 and continue through June 1/2, then resume nightly monitoring through June 7/8.

AAVSO Alert Notice 667 has been updated with this information.

Many thanks, and Good observing,

Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth

I observed and reported a time series last night preparing for the 27th on.. Using my C14  and STF8300 Camera with a V filter 90 sec slices. I was able to get anywhere from a 3 to a 6 SNR on VPhot. I will either have to use 120secs at least (I may have to go to 180 in V or a CBB filter about 60secs and report as CV. Which one is preferred?.

I also took the liberty of processing in AstroimageJ manually inputing the sequnce stars V magnitudes and my results are included below in case this is useful to Dr. Szkody.

Take care

Pablo Lewin LPAC.

The weather at my site in  Germany was not good last night, but at least I got some data with iTelescope 21 (in the database now) ==> no outburst at that time. Sorry for not being able to contribute more data in the critical time, hope this helps.

CS

HBE

I might have an hour or less before clouds move in this night, but so far, ca 6 hours before the start of the HST observations, V386 Ser looks quiet at 18 mag.

CS

HBE

Hi Paula,

No outburst in observation of 2019-30-05, image below.

With chance, i do another mesurement this night, i have clear skies under south west of France.

Best regards; Laurent from France.

Before clouds moved in, I could measure a 18.0 (V) for V386 Ser near midnight 2019-06-01. It seems to be stuck in a quite stable state at around 18.0, I understand it will be even dimmer eventually at full quiessence.

FWIW, the HST has pages that describe the rationale behind each observation (I guess that is basically taken from the observation proposal), and theses pages are open for the public.

Here is the entry related to this project, I guess: http://www.stsci.edu/hst/phase2-public/15703.pro

Cheers

HBE 

Dr. Paula Szkody writes:

Thanks to all the wonderful observers who posted observations before and during our scheduled HST observations. Unfortunately, the aging telescope had jitter when it went to our source and could not find the guide stars to hold the pointing and so the observation had zero data. There was no way to foresee this and they have approved a repeat observation. We don't know yet when that will be but hopefully before September when we can't see it from the ground anymore. The optical data taken will be useful to search for optical periodicities and so is still a valuable addition. I hope that some of you will  be willing to continue observing this object for when we make the second attempt and thanks again for all your efforts, very much appreciated!

Paula Szkody and the HST team on V386 Ser

Dr. Paula Szkody's HST observations of V386 Ser have been rescheduled. Please see AAVSO Alert Notice 669 for details and observing instructions.

Many thanks, and Good observing,

Elizabeth O. Waagen, AAVSO HQ

The attached image is a stack of 120 90-second V-band images. Small telescope, dark site, no moon, very clear. V0386 Serpentis is clearly not in outburst, though  photometry of the series of images shows some potential small-scale variability - S/N of each image is not very high however. I plan to continue observing as necessary and as the weather permits.

Regards - Dick

V=18.1 (SNR 34) from my suburban driveway here in Lynnwood, WA. PSF photometry from Astrometrica, 10 x 3 min.

-Bruce Van Deventer, UW Dept of Astronomy alumnus.

Under good suburban conditions, I need about 30 minutes integration time to make a decent (+/- 0.05 mag error), V filtered  measurement with a 200mm Newtonian and a very affordable ZWO ASI 178mm CMOS camera. I hope this might encourage some observers to try to extend their photometry to fainter targets, it's quite amazing what a relatively small scope can do if you let it collect photons for long enough. Attachment is a crop from a stacked (30 x 64 sec) exposure at relatively high air mass (I'm observing from 52 deg latitude)

CS

HBE

Dr. Paula Szkody informs us that the HST observations of V386 Ser scheduled for August 1-3 have been postponed. Please continue the nightly snapshots as requested in AAVSO Alert Notice 669. Hopefully the HST observations will take place in early August, but we will keep you informed!

Many thanks, and Good observing,

Elizabeth

AAVSO Alert Notice 675 gives the new approximate dates of the HST observations of V386 Ser that were postponed from August 1-3. Please see the Alert Notice for details and observing instructions.

Many thanks, and Good observing,

Elizabeth

Further to AAVSO Alert Notice 675, Dr. Szkody informs us that the HST observations of V386 Ser have been scheduled for 2019 Aug 15  22:04:49 UT - Aug 16 00:31:52 UT. The critical night is August 14 - please report your observations of V386 Ser as soon as possible after you make them so that HST can be notified in time to make the go-nogo decision.

Many thanks, and Good observing,

Elizabeth