Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
IAUC 3354: SS 433; P/SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 1; IAUC 3348
The following International Astronomical Union Circular may be linked-to from your own Web pages, but must not otherwise be redistributed (see these notes on the conditions under which circulars are made available on our WWW site).
Read IAUC 3355
Circular No. 3354
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM Telephone 617-864-5758
SS 433
E. W. Gottlieb and W. Liller, Center for Astrophysics, report
that the blue magnitudes of SS 433, as derived from plates in the
Harvard archival collection, show a significant tendency to be cyclic
with a period of 161.7 +/- 0.3 days. Prior to 1929 there was
little indication of periodicity; instead the star stayed near its
minimum brightness at B = 17.5 +/- 0.3 with occasional flares to B <
17.0. Since 1929 the lightcurve cycle has repeated with a spread
of +/- 0.3 magnitude with only three of 39 points falling more than
0.5 magnitude below the mean lightcurve. This preliminary value of
the period agrees well with the 160 +/- 3 days over which spectral-line
motions recur (Margon et al., IAUC 3345).
E. F. Milone, University of Calgary, reports that JHKL observations
of SS 433 carried out with the 150-cm Mt. Lemmon infrared
telescope by T. A. Clark and himself indicate variability on a timescale
of days. Compared to theta Lyr and BD +34 4213, SS 433 dimmed by
average values of 0.23, 0.21, 0.12 and 0.07 magnitude in J, H, K
and L, respectively, on Apr. 15.5 UT with respect to the situation
on the adjacent nights of Apr. 14 and 17. There is further a
suggestion of smaller variations over a shorter timescale, and the
object's J-L color index is more than 1.2 magnitudes greater than
that of theta Lyr.
PERIODIC COMET SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 1
F. Borngen, Tautenburg Observatory, writes that two objective-prism
spectrograms (dispersion 2600 A/mm at H-gamma) with the 200-cm
reflector showed an outburst of this object. On Feb. 28.786 UT there
were two emission knots in the blue spectral region; the integral
magnitude was B ~ 14.5, and the diameters of the central compact
condensation and faint extended coma were ~ 6" and ~ 25", respectively.
By Mar. 1.846 UT there had been marked fading to B ~ 16.
Total visual magnitude estimates by J. Bortle, Brooks Observatory
(32-cm reflector): Mar. 17.05 UT, 11.9; 21.03, 11.8.
IAUC 3348
The last lines of IAUC 3348 were accidentally eliminated.
They should read "object has remained essentially constant at
magnitude 8.6-8.9 for the past week". The date was Apr. 23.
1979 May 4 (3354) Brian G. Marsden
Read IAUC 3355
Our Web policy. Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.
