AAVSO Alert Notice 440
PEP Observing Campaign on P Cygni
May 17, 2011

Ernst Pollmann, Chairman of the VdS-Spectroscopy-Group in Germany and an ative spectroscopist, has requested the assistance of AAVSO photoelectric photometry (PEP) observers in a campaign to observe the S Doradus variable P Cygni through the 2011 observing season.

PEP data are needed for correlation with spectra of P Cyg obtained by Ernst and other spectroscopists as they study this very interesting star.

CCD and DSLR observers can also observe P Cyg, if special care is taken to ensure the star is not overexposed. We strongly encourage CCD and DSLR observers to use standard V filters and perform a full system calibration and transformation of your data onto the Johnson V system. This will enable researchers to easily combine your observations with those of PEP observers. All observers should work to obtain photometry accurate to better than 0.05 magnitude.

V observations are requested. Please use the following comparison and check stars:

Comp: SAO 69101 (NSV 24943) V=4.936, B-V= -0.086
Coordinates: RA = 19 55 51.80 Dec = +38 29 12.0 (J2000.0)

Check: SAO 69803 (36 Cyg) V=5.573
Coordinates: RA = 20 18 28.66 Dec = +36 59 59.290 (J2000.0)

P Cyg coordinates: RA = 20 17 47.20 Dec = +38 01 58.6 (J2000.0)

PEP observers should email their formatted, unreduced reports to AAVSO Headquarters, or use the comparison and check stars identified above and do their own reductions. The WebObs utility for PEP observations is not yet available, but it should be later in the year. In the meantime, observers may submit transformed data via the standard WebObs utility. Observations should be submitted to the AAVSO International Database as P CYG.

Finder charts for P Cyg (do not use the comparison stars given in these charts; use only the comparison and check stars identified above) may be generated using the Variable Star Plotter (VSP): http://www.aavso.org/vsp

For more information on Ernst’s work in spectroscopy, please visit his website, Active Spectroscopy in Astronomy: http://www.astrospectroscopy.de

and the VdS-Spectroscopy-Group website (a section of the Amateur Astronomy Association Germany): http://spektroskopie.fg-vds.de/index_e.htm

This campaign is included on the AAVSO Observing Campaigns page: http://www.aavso.org/observing-campaigns

Thank you very much for your participation in this campaign – your observations will be crucial to its success!

This AAVSO Alert Notice was compiled by Elizabeth O. Waagen.

Please use the following links:
Submit Observations: http://www.aavso.org/webobs
Alert Notice archive: http://www.aavso.org/alert-notice-archive
Subscription information: http://www.aavso.org/observation-notification#alertnotice

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Filed under: AAVSO Alerts