VSNET Weekly Campaign Summary *** Last week news *** (new targets) Nova Sgr 2001 (RA = 17h54m40s.43, Dec = -26d14'15".7) W. Liller discovered an apparent nova on February 24 (mag 7.7) (vsnet-campaign-nova 223). A. Jones confirmed the object at 8.9mag on February 25 (vsnet-campaign-nova 226). H. Nishimura has independently detected the object (vsnet-campaign-nova 233, 239, 240). K. Kadota reported his result of astrometry and noticed that there is a USNO_A2.0 star (rmag = 15.8, bmag = 17.4) near the nova (vsnet-campaign-nova 227, 232). H. Yamaoka mentioned that a faint star with rmag about 18 is also seen in DSS2R image (vsnet-campaign-nova 228). Early photometry reported by some observers shows the current magnitude is around 9.1mag (vsnet-campaign-nova 229, 230, 231, 243, 235, 241). K. Torii performed astrometry which yields results consistent with others (vsnet-campaign-nova 234). K. Takamizawa's negative observation revealed the nova eruption occurred after February 19 (vsnet-campaign-nova 236). T. Kato mentioned that it may be a recurrent nova in the case of the 16-17th mag star is the quiescent object. In such a case, the evolution of the nova may be extremely rapid (vsnet-campaign-nova 238). SN 2001V (RA = 11h57m24s.93, Dec = +25d12'09".0) IAUC 7585 reports that the CfA group has discovered the new type Ia SN. The position is 52" east and 28" north of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3987. This galaxy has a remarkable dust lane, and SN 2001V lies just south of the disk plane. NGC 3987 is a member of the group of galaxies, which is sometimes called as "NGC 4005 group". Although it is in the direction of the Coma supercluster, this group lies in front of the Coma; the mean recession velocity is about 4600 km/s. Thus, the expected maximum for the typical SN Ia is about 15.5 mag (vsnet-campaign-sn 154, 155). TU Men (RA = 04h41m38s.10, Dec = -76d36'09".7) A possible outburst (14.1: mag) of the SU UMa-type dwarf nova, TU Men was reported by P. Nelson on February 20. R. Stubbings reported that the object further rose to 12.6mag (vsnet-campaign-dn 513). The object then further brightened to 11.8mag on February 21 and 22 (vsnet-campaign-dn). DW Cnc (RA = 07h58m56s.80, Dec = +16d16'48".2) M. Reszelski reported the object was fainter than and as bright as 14.5 mag on 2000 September 25 and 2001 February 18, respectively. This indicates an outburst occurred during the last week, but there is no previous firm faint state observation (vsnet-campaign-dn 514, 527). T. Vanmunster mentioned the object is always around 14.5+/- 0.5 mag, and this activity may not be a genuine outburst (vsnet-campaign-dn 531). DI UMa (RA = 09h12m22s.16, Dec = +50d49'39".1) M. Reszelski reported an outburst (15.7: mag) of DI UMa on February 18. The outburst may be a superoutburst (vsnet-campaign-dn 524). CP Dra (RA = 10h15m39s.88, Dec = +73d26'05".4) As reported in [vsnet-outburst 1691] by C. Jones on February 23, the poorly known dwarf nova CP Dra is undergoing a rare, bright (14.3mag) outburst. The last outburst was observed on 2000 May 15 by T. Vanmunster (vsnet-alert 4851). That outburst was mag 15.3 and relatively rapidly faded. The brightness of the present outburst surpasses that of the GCVS maximum (15.1) and other available records (vsnet-campaign 788). T. Vanmunster reported the detection of superhumps with an amplitude of 0.3mag and a period of 0.0687 +/- 0.0007 day (vsnet-campaign 793). He also performed astrometry and reported the position (vsnet-campaign-dn 532). H. Yamaoka also performed astrometry and reported the above position (vsnet-campaign-dn 533, 534). The Kyoto team confirmed the outburst on February 24 (vsnet-campaign 789, vsnet-campaign-dn 529), and reported the growth of superhumps with an amplitude of 0.2mag with a period of 0.078 day, which is significantly longer than that reported by T. Vanmunster (vsnet-campaign 792, 794). The superoutburst is now ongoing (vsnet-campaign-dn 538, 539, 540). OI 090.4 (RA = 07h57m06s.6, Dec = 09d56'35") The blazar OI090.4 has brightened to V=15.6mag as reported by S. O'Connor on February 24 (vsnet-campaign-blazar 156). CR Boo (RA = 13h48m55s.42, Dec = +07d57'30".3) The object experienced a bright (13.7mag) outburst on February 24 as reported by M. Reszelski (vsnet-campaign-dn 537). KR Aur (RA = 06h15m45s.05, Dec = +28d34'16".0) As reported by some observers, the nova-like variable KR Aur is brightening now (vsnet-campaign-nl 5). (continuous targets) BZ Cam (RA = 06h29m34s.49, Dec = +71d04'39".5) After rapid recovering, the object again showed fading (vsnet-campaign 787, vsnet-campaign-nl 4). A possible brightening was reported on February 25 (vsnet-campaign-nl 6, vsnet-campaign 796). SAX J1711.6-3808 (RA = 17h11m36s, Dec = -38d08'.5) H. Yamaoka performed astrometry using CCD images taken by the Kyoto team. According to his result, there are two stars somewhat brighter than DSS R image. One is an USNO_A2.0 star at R.A. = 17:11:36.40, Decl. = -38:08:16.3 (2000.0), whose rmag = 15.4 bmag = 18.9. It appears on Kyoto image to be 14.8:C. And, another one is located at R. A. = 17h11m39s.15, Decl. = -38o07'52".7 (2000.0), which is not cataloged in USNO_A2.0, but can be seen on DSS2 R and Bj image. The rough magnitude estimates on DSS are r = 17.6, b = 19.5. It appears on Kyoto image to be 16.0:C. These are possibly red stars (vsnet-campaign-xray 64). The Kyoto team have taken additional images on February 21 (vsnet-campaign-xray 65). TT Boo (RA = 14h57m46s.46, Dec = +40d43'55".5) The superoutburst continues (vsnet-campaign-dn 515, 525, 530, 535, 541). TV Crv (RA = 12h20m23s.56, Dec = -18d27'02".7) The superoutburst continues (vsnet-campaign-dn 509, 512, 526, 536). The striking feature in the Feb. 19 light curve obtained by the Kyoto team is the presence of "super-QPOs", giant quasi-periodic oscillations only seen at the early (or fading) epochs of some SU UMa-type systems. The super-QPOs in TV Crv had an amplitude of ~0.1 mag, and a typical period of 10 min. The Kyoto observation on Feb. 20 (Uemura et al.) has shown fully developed superhumps. The development of superhumps took 2 or 3 days after the ignition of the outburst. The best superhump period is 0.0649 d, which confirms the previous estimate (0.0650 d, Howell et al.). This finding confirms that TV Crv is one of short orbital period systems (vsnet-campaign 785, 786). During February 18 - 21, the object was gradually faded with a rate of 0.03-0.05mag/day (vsnet-campaign-dn 518). In the light curve taken on February 20-24 at Kyoto, we can see prominent superhumps with slightly smaller amplitude. Period analysis using combined data yields 0.06492 d (vsnet-campaign-dn 522, vsnet-campaign 795). U Gem (RA = 07h55m05s.55, Dec = +22d00'09".2) The object is still slightly active (vsnet-campaign-dn 511, 517, 528). The recent activity is unusual for this object (vsnet-campaign-dn 519). V445 Pup (RA = 07h37m56s.88, Dec = -25d56'59".1) Some observers reported the object was slightly bright (~9.8mag) on February 19 and 20 (vsnet-campaign-nova 218), and then, relatively calm on February 21 - 26 (vsnet-campaign-nova 222, 224, 242). The VSNET collaboration team received data sets obtained by A. Retter, G. Handler, and M. Martigoni. Combined light curve during February 10 - 19 shows short-term modulations with a time-scale from ten minutes to an hour, and longer scale (a few days) variations. Amplitudes of the short-term modulations are variable, but typically 0.03mag in V-band (vsnet-campaign-nova 219). The light curve on February 22 taken at Kyoto also shows small-amplitude variations with time-scales of 10-30 min (vsnet-campaign-nova 221). The Kyoto data of V445 Pup on Feb. 24 has shown that the object may have entered an active phase (vsnet-campaign-nova 225). Delta Sco (RA = 16h00m19s.9, Dec = -22d37'17") The object is still active (vsnet-campaign-be 90). V803 Cen (RA = 13h23m44.5s, Dec = -41d44'30".1) The object faded from the outburst on February 20 (vsnet-campaign-dn 510). GK Per (RA = 03h31m12s.50, Dec = +43d54'17".8) The slightly active state continues (vsnet-campaign-ip 43). MKN 421 (RA = 11h04m27s, Dec = +38d12'32") The active state continues (vsnet-campaign-blazar 153, 154, 155). L. Takalo noticed that Mrk 421 has brightened quite a lot at TeV- energies, showing also very rapid variability (vsnet-campaign-blazar 157). CI Aql (RA = 18h52m03.6s, Dec = -01d28m38.9s) This recurrent nova is reported to be still bright in this season. S. Kiyota reported V=14.17, Ic=13.64, and Rc=13.96 On February 16. Such activity is quite unusual for this type variable (vsnet-campaign-nova 220). *** Future schedule *** RZ LMi campaign conducted by J. Patterson on April 2001 For more information, see [vsnet-campaign 718, vsnet-campaign-dn 429]. MAXI workshop on AGN Variability March 10-11, 2001, Nikko, Japan, Organized by RIKEN & NASDA For more information, see [vsnet-campaign-blazar 144] *** General information *** U Gem Eclipse ephemeris, see [vsnet-campaign-dn 521] CP Dra The outburst image taken at Kyoto: http://ftp.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pub/vsnet/DNe/CP_Dra/cpdra.gif [vsnet-campaign 791] Nova Sgr 2001 VSNET page: http://vsnet.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/vsnet/Novae/nsgr01.html [vsnet-campaign-nova 237] (This summary can be cited.) Regards, Makoto Uemura