Long-Period Eclipsing Binary EE Cep

A paper posted this evening on the Los Alamos preprint server may be of interest to those planning to observe the upcoming eclipse of the long-period binary EE Cep:

http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0303547

The 2003 eclipse of EE Cep is coming. A review of past eclipses

(vsnet-chat 6404)

The eclipse is in progress. I resend the message from Brian Skiff posted on March 25. In addition to the past record cited in this paper, the 1997 eclipse observations were reported on VSNET by Timo Kinnunen and Alfons Diepvens. The VSOLJ has a 1986 eclipse record, available from the VSNET online database. I was one of who recorded the 1986 eclipse; the light variation was truly exciting.

Regards,
Taichi Kato

(vsnet-campaign-ecl 74)

  (Initial slowly fading stage?)

  YYYYMMDD(UT)   mag  observer
  20030330.087   107  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030401.128   109  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030401.996   107  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030404.978   107  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030407.116   108  (Reinder J. Bouma)
  20030414.862   110  (Georg Comello)
  20030416.058   107  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030419.951   108  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030420.917   109  (Reinder J. Bouma)
  20030420.969   108  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030422.001   108  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030425.985   108  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030429.892   109  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030503.942   111: (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030504.988   109  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030505.988   110  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030506.066   110  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030506.931   111  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030507.924   111  (Georg Comello)
  20030507.932   109  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030507.940   109  (Erwin van Ballegoij)
  20030509.030   109  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030515.912   111  (Georg Comello)
  20030516.858   111  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)
  20030517.875   111  (Pavol A. Dubovsky)

EE Cep had been long suspected to be an R CrB-type variable based on its infrequent fadings. In the 1970's, the object was shown to be a long-period eclipsing binary (period 5.61 yr).

This long-period eclipsing binary has an unseen eclipsing companion, which likely varies in geometry. This eclipsing body is suggested to be an optically thick disk-like object [see Mikolajewski and Graczyk (1999) MNRAS 303, 521]. A similar explanation is propsed for the enigmatic eclipsing binary epslion Aurigae.

VSNET light curve (requires Java)

Light curve

VSNET data search

Search!

Return to HomePage

Return to Daisaku Nogami's page

vsnet-adm@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp