May 19, 2010: Dr. Gordon Sarty, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, requests our continuing assistance in his ongoing observations of High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs). Dr. Sarty provides the following text for the current request:
"Please obtain BVRI photometry (or any subset thereof, VI preferred) of the following four HMXBs for the time period of our radial velocity observations to be made with the 72-inch Plaskett telescope at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) from now until June 30. The actual scheduled observing times are May 21-27 and June 24-30 if you want to get observations that are simultaneous with ours. Simultaneous observations are very useful. All observations of the HMXBs at any time are valuable. The targets for this DAO observing campaign are:
Name R.A.(2000) Dec.(2000) Mag LPH no. AUID
1936+541 19:32:52.3 +53:52:45.5 9.8 115 000-BDC-070
J2030.5+47 20:30:30.9 +47:51:50.7 9.3 123 000-BDC-306
2202+501 22:01:38.2 +50:10:04.7 8.8 127 000-BFS-469
2206+543 22:07:56.2 +54:31:06.4 9.9 128 000-BDC-531
In addition, Spitzer space telescope observations of LSS 5039:
LSS 5039 18:26:15.1 -14:50:54.3 11.2 100 000-BDB-845
will be made on May 21, 2:30 UT, and June 6, 23:51 UT. The observations will be for a little over 2 hours each date. Observations of LSS 5039 made before, during, and after the Spitzer observations in the Ic band will be useful. A look at the AAVSO light curves for LSS 5039 show it to be mostly constant but we suspect eclipse-like variations at random intervals based on one observation that needs confirmation.
The DAO is located in Victoria, B.C., Canada, and the observer will be Dave Balam. Interested AAVSO observers should concentrate on one star per night, all night, for as many nights as you can devote, while Dave is observing at DAO.
For more background information on the HMXB project, please see our JAAVSO preprint at http://www.aavso.org/publications/ejaavso/v35n2/327.shtml
Charts may be downloaded at:
Please submit your observations directly to the AAVSO International Database. Thanks for your ongoing coverage of the HMXBs. Please direct any questions about this observing campaign to Dr. Gordon Sarty at gordon.sarty@usask.ca .
This AAVSO Special Notice was issued by Elizabeth O. Waagen, AAVSO.
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