[vsnet-chat 254] bright variable star in M33

[Taichi Kato <tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp>]

    In a recent issue of Astronomy Letters (23, 37), Sharov et al. reports
on a high-luminosity eclipsing binary with a rapidly varying period in M33.
The object is located at

    01h 30m 50s.1 +30o 30' 20" (1950.0),

which was also listed as an emssion line object H_alpha 19 by Fabrika and
Sholukhova (Astrophys. Space Sci. 226, 229).

    They found the following ephemeris of eclipses:

    Min I = 2448892.35 + 33.108 E,

with a range of variability of 16.8-17.8B.  The shape of the light curve
is beta Lyr-like.  They also found a rapid change in period at a rate
of Pdot = 5 x 10^-6 d/d.  They suggested that the system is a close binary
containin an accretion disk (possibly precessing).

    Wouldn't this extragalactic variable be a challenge for CCD observers?
The object can be easily located by its coordinates -- on photographs the
object looks only slightly fainter than the nearby GSC 15.0 mag star.

Regards,
Taichi Kato

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