Symbiotic star ASAS J190559-2109.4 - Alert Notice 719

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Wed, 08/26/2020 - 23:55

AAVSO Alert Notice 719 announces an observing campaign beginning immediately on the symbiotic star ASAS J190559-2109.4. Please see the notice for details and observing instructions.

To stay informed about this campaign, particularly about the date of its ending, subscribe to this forum thread (option 1 under Subscribe below) -  see feedback from the PI,  comments and questions from observers, and notes from AAVSO HQ. Add a post yourself  -  join in the discussion about this interesting target!

Many thanks, and Good observing,

Elizabeth O. Waagen, AAVSO HQ

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
No Comp Stars out to 2 degree field?

Hello Elizabeth--I found no comp stars even out to 2 degrees is VSP.    My FOV is 20 arc mins.  Is there a request in to generate a set of comps for this object?

Gary

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Comp stars are there

Hi Gary,

I find comp stars when I plot an 'e' scale chart - do you have all the other fields cleared out in the plot request form?

Elizabeth

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
ASAS stars

I get tons of ASAS stars, but no comp stars.  Checked the form.  It seem correct.  I tried the "e" chart option also.  If I ask for the Photometry file, it says no photometry is available either.  

Gary

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Is the name correct in your request?

Hi Gary,

That is very odd. Please excuse my asking, but do you have the name as it appears in the notice?  I just tried again, copying and pasting the name from the Alert Notice announcement post above. I see a nice chart with 6 comps nearby.

I tested making a plot both from the VSP form and the Pick a star link on the homepage, and they both work. You say you are seeing lots of ASAS stars - if I choose the "show all variables" option I see many ASAS stars but the comp stars are still clearly there.

Elizabeth

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
This is very odd?

I have rebooted my computer and it does the same thing.  I have 5 screen shots documenting the input and the output, including the "No Photometry available".  Can you see any issues with my input?  

 

Oh it looks like the forums do no allow attachments anymore.  Bummer.  I will email them directly to you.

 

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Workaround

Hello Elizabeth

I don't understand this, but I was able to get the comps on another laptop her in the house.  Its the identical machine, identical operating system Win7, but for some reason it worked and I was able to get the PT for this field.  The machine giving the issue is the same one that would not allow me to change my VSX password last week.  I wonder if its related?  I will go an try to reset my password on the other machine and see how it goes.

 

Gary

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Computer questionable

Hi Gary,

It's interesting that the problematic laptop is the one that gave you VSX password issues. I don't think there is a passord/access issue because one does not have to be logged in to generate a chart.  It sounds more as if there has been some fundamental change in the laptop "innards". It would be interesting to see if you can do all your usual things on other websites.

Elizabeth

Affiliation
British Astronomical Association, Variable Star Section (BAA-VSS)
Comparison stars

When there are no comp stars, I use suitable comparisons from Guide 9 GSC stars.

 

Steve J

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
FYI- Missing Comps

FYI

The majority of the Time an Observer informs the sequence team that their target lacks comps and we know otherwise is because they have the Standard Field Checked, instead of None within the VSP options

Would you like a special chart?

None          Binocular                 Standard Field

Binocular: Only labels comparison stars useful for binocular viewing
Standard Field: Only labels photometric "standard stars" in the chart's field of view

Tim Crawford, Sequence Team

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Comp stars for Alert #719

Hello Tim

It turns out that I used my other laptop and things worked fine.  Both laptops are the same manufacturer and model, both running Win 7.  So I was able to log in and get a finder chart with comp stars and the photometry table.  Its also curious that the suspect laptop is the same one that I had difficulty logging into VSX last week.  So I am all set.  I put it in the Q at my remote telescope and will a little luck (ie if I did not make a mistake, I should have data to submit in the morning 

closing the alert notice

Hi everyone— closing out this campaign since the target has set. Long-term monitoring on this target is always interesting (this is definitely a symbiotic binary based on prior observations, and it would be nice to know if it goes into outburst, etc.), but we'll have to wait until summer to try again for unambiguous flickering detections in longer light curves. Considering the error bars, I think the closest thing to a flickering detection was probably Gordon's observations on 9/15 (before the high-airmass uptick), but it's unclear. Everyone, (especially Franz-Josef, who obtained tons of data), if you see this, please hold onto your images if you can, since it would be interesting someday (when I make the time) to look at a number of check stars to see if there's a statistical argument to be made for flickering in your data.

Thanks again to everyone!!