Re: (fwd) Assistance Needed with Light Curve of V1432 Aql V1432 Aql is an eclipsing polar (AM Her star). In contrast to other CVs (dwarf novae, novalike stars etc.), the emission source (and the eclipsed body) is an accretion stream and accretion column on a white dwarf (not an accretion disk). The temporal structure of the accretion stream and accretion column strongly vary, and have own irregularities (blobs, QPOs originating near the accretion shock region etc.). They may have affected Donn's observation. By the way, the source of emission from a polar is a combination of synchrotron emission and thermal emission in the optical range. The frequency dependency of the former emission is strikingly different from usual CVs (with thermal emissions). There even exist outstanding differences between V-band and "white light" (unfiltered) light curves. Due to this complexity, "white light" light curves in polars convey less information than in other CVs. So we don't usually recommend unfiltered photometry (as in other CVs) of polars except on rare occasions (simultaneous observation with an X-ray sattelite or when knowledge of one-pole or two-pole accretion is important). Filtered photometry is more recommended in these sources, but they are usually too faint to get sufficient S/N and time-resolution with small telescopes. A minimum requirement would be 0.5-1.0 m telescope with a high Q.E. CCD except on a few bright sources. Regards, Taichi Kato
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