MBCAA Observatory

VV Pup the polar

Observed: 25, 31 Jan, 1 Feb 2006

Michel Bonnardeau
8 Feb 2006
Updated 29 Dec 2007 (phase origin)

Abstract

Light curves for this cataclysmic polar are presented.

Introduction

VV Pup is a cataclysmic system, that is a binary with an accreting white dwarf. The white dwarf is strongly magnetized (about 10^8 gauss), its spin is synchronized with the orbital motion, and the accretion is funneled by the magnetic field (no accretion disk). This type of cataclysmic is a polar or an AM Her. The orbital/spin period is 100.44 mn, the distance 145 pc (Warner (1995)).

Observations

The observations were carried out with a 203 mm f/6.3 SC telescope, a filter wheel and a SBIG ST7E camera. Each exposure is 200s long.

A Clear filter was used for the 25 Jan session.

For the 31 Jan and 1 Feb sessions, two perpendicular polarized filters were used alternatively. This was in a vain attempt at observing VV Pup polarization (Warner (1995) page 333).

The comparison star is GSC 6004-03141 with an assumed magnitude of 13.000 whatever the filter. The check star is an anonymous star at RA=08:15:12.93, DEC=-19:02:14.3, with an observed average unfiltered magnitude of 15.104 (standard deviation 0.047), with one of the polarization filter 15.124 (0.058) and with the other polarization filter 15.101 (0.068).

The light curves:


UNFILTERED. Red: VV Pup. Blue: the check star, shifted by +1.5 mag. The error bars are +/- the 1-sigma statistical uncertainties.


POLARIZED. Red: polarizer parallel to the DEC axis, Blue: parallel to the RA axis.


POLARIZED. Red: polarizer at 45° from the RA/DEC axes, Blue: perpendicular to the first filter.

The data may be folded with the orbital/spin period:


Green: unfiltered. Blue, red: polarization filters.

The phase is computed for a period of 0.069747d and 2,453,000.0 as the origin.

Reference

Warner B. (1995) Cataclysmic Variable Stars Cambridge UP.

Technical notes

Telescope and camera configuration.

Computer and software configuration.

More observations

2007 follow up observations.

Site map

Search

Write to the author


2007 follow up observations.
http://www.astromb.net
MBCAA Observatory. Copyright 2004-2008