[vsnet-alert 15431] Next HST observations: SDSS1238-0339, SDSS1035+0551 & SDSS1435+2336

[Boris Gaensicke]

Dear All,

the HST observations of HM Leo went well this
morning, thanks a lot for your very thorough
monitoring. The system was not quite as co-operative
as we hoped: despite being in quiescence, the
white dwarf is not visible, and the HST spectrum
is dominated by the accretion disc ... while somewhat
disappointing, that is also the beauty of CV research:
they always have a surprise for you!

HST is back to full speed, and we now have three
targets firmly scheduled:

SDSS1238-0339	Mar 1 08:37:30 - 14:04:33
SDSS1035+0551	Mar 8 07:42:37 - 15:04:27
SDSS1435+2336	Mar 9 08:35:01 - 13:40:17

All three are very short-period CVs discovered
by SDSS, and the HST observations are guaranteed
to produce beautiful white dwarf spectra. Please
keep monitoring those three stars - I know that
we are  stretching it a bit,  as they are all rather faint!

* SDSS1238-0339 is somewhat unusual as it has very
peculiar mini-outbursts (V~18-17.5), see Fig. 5 in
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ApJ...711..389A,
so this one deserves quite intense monitoring.

* SDSS1035+0551 is deeply eclipsing, and has
a brown dwarf companion, i.e. a very low mass
companion star of only ~58 Jupiter masses, a
textbook example of a CV near the period minimum.

Best wishes,

Boris

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For more information on this HST program, see

http://deneb.astro.warwick.ac.uk/phsdaj/public_html/12870/
http://deneb.astro.warwick.ac.uk/phsdaj/public_html/12870/Targets.html