[vsnet-alert 17874] Gaia14aaf = ASASSN-14cn = MASTER OT J161700.81+620024.9: likely eclipsing AM CVn star

[Enrique de Miguel]

Following the report in ATel #6593 by Rixon et al. on the transient Gaia14aaf (=ASASSN-14cn = MASTER OT J161700.81+620024.9) I performed ~2 hr time-series (unfiltered) photometry on this object using 180 s integrations. The mean brightness is 18.2. The light curve seems to suggest the presence of ~0.7 mag eclipses. The duration of the eclipses is probably about 6 min, but this is uncertain due to the low time resolution of the photometry. A tentative value of the period is 49.7 min, a value to be refined (and confirmed) by subsequent follow-up.

 The short period is consistent with the AM CVn classification reported for this transient in ATel #6593 (see also http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.7396),  as it is its (likely) eclipsing behavior with the double-peaked He emission lines reported in ATel #6593.


Enrique de Miguel
CBA Huelva (Spain)