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[vsnet-obs 3242] WX Ceti, another garden-variety superhumper


               WX CETI, ANOTHER GARDEN-VARIETY SUPERHUMPER

     July 18-23 photometry over a 9-hr longitude range from CBA-Belgium
(Tonny Vanmunster) and Cerro Tololo (Jonathan Kemp and Susan Kassin) shows
conclusively that the superhump period is 85.37 +- 0.05 min.  This is
essentially the fourth-best period solution in the data of O'Donoghue et
al. (1991 MNRAS), and illustrates well the difficulty of period-finding
from a single observing site.  The superhump period exceeds the orbital
(spectroscopic) period by 1.7%, fairly normal for these short-Porb dwarf
novae.

     Other measured properties appear normal too:  the star declined at a
rate 0.12 mag/d, and the superhump has smoothly declined from 0.25 to 0.14
mag full amplitude.

     It seems likely that the star will stay bright for a few weeks, and
will provide a rare opportunity (the best ever) to study the light curve
in great detail.  Of special interest are:

(1)  the timing of superhump maxima/minima;  and

(2)  the behavior of the star during and after any "dips" that may occur
     in the eruption light curve.

We would be very interested in hearing from others who manage to secure
observations of this star.  (Or even those who don't -- there will be
other stars and other nights!)

Joe Patterson       jop@tristram.phys.columbia.edu
Tonny Vanmunster    tvanmuns@innet.be
Jonathan Kemp       jonathan@tristram.phys.columbia.edu
Susan Kassin        kassin@tristram.phys.columbia.edu