Resources Resources Following are some useful websites and books for high energy observers. Cataclysmic Variables Gary Poyner’s web pages: www.garypoyner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/varstars.html Mike Simonsen’s pages: http://home.mindspring.com/mikesimonsen/ CVNet: http://home.mindspring.com/mikesimonsen/cvnet/index.html Tonny Vanmunster’s pages: www.cbabelgium.com/ This author’s variable star images: http://uk.geocities.com/martinmobberley/Variables.html TA/BAA recurrent objects program: http://www.garypoyner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rop.html Center for Backyard Astrophysics: http://cba.phys.columbia.edu/ The SIMBAD database: http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/ General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVSs): www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs/ A Catalog and Atlas of Cataclysmic Variables (The online version of ‘‘Downes, Webbink & Shara’’): http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/cvcat/index.html Paper versions of ‘A Catalog and Atlas of Cataclysmic Variables’ by Downes & Shara, or Downes, Webbink & Shara were originally publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP), namely, Volume 105, No. 684, 1993 Feb. and Volume 109, No. 734, 1997 April. CVs from the Hamburg Quasar Survey: http://deneb.astro.warwick.ac.uk/phsdaj/HQS_Public/ HQS_Public.html British Astronomical Association (BAA) Variable Star Section: www.britastro.org/vss/ American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO): www.aavso.org/ The Astronomer: www.theastronomer.org/ Yahoo-based CV discussion, outburst, and circular groups: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ cvnet-discussion/; http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cvnet-outburst/; http://tech.groups. yahoo.com/group/cvnet-circular/ The BAA VSS alert group on Yahoo: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/baavss-alert/ AAVSO variable star charts: www.aavso.org/observing/charts/ AAVSO variable star plotter www.aavso.org/observing/charts/vsp/ AAVSO ‘‘blue and gold’’ observations submissions pages online: http://www.aavso.org/bluegold/ index.php Cataclysmic Variable Stars – How and Why They Vary by Coel Hellier. Published by Springer/ Praxis in 2001. Novae and Recurrent Novae A Reference Catalog and Atlas of Galactic Novae by Hilmar W. Duerbeck. Published by Reidel in 1987. ISBN 90-277-2535-7. An Atlas of Local Group Galaxies by Paul William Hodge, Brooke P. Skelton & Joy Ashizawa. Published by Springer in 2002. ISBN 140200673X Atlas of the Andromeda Galaxy by Paul W. Hodge. University of Washington Press, 1981. Atlas of the Andromeda Galaxy website: http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ANDROMEDA_ Atlas/Hodge_contents.html Rainbow Optics Spectroscopes: http://www.starspectroscope.com/ SBIG Spectrometer User Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/invite/SBIG-SGS 229 Christian Buil’s spectroscopy and CCD pages: http://astrosurf.com/buil/; http://www.astrosurf. com/buil/us/stage/calcul/design_us.htm Visual Spec. spectroscopy freeware http://astrosurf.com/vdesnoux/ Resources Solar Flares, Giant Prominences, and Flare Stars Coronado solar telescopes: www.coronadofilters.com Solarscope H-Alpha filters: www.sciencecenter.net/solarscope/doc/about.htm Daystar Hydrogen-alpha filters: http://www.daystarfilters.com/hydrogen.htm NASA Sun-Earth media viewer: http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/viewer/flash/flash.html Latest SOHO images: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html National U.S. Solar Observatory (Arizona/New Mexico): http://www.nso.edu/ Rhessi solar flares page: http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/hessi/flares.htm AAVSO web page on UV Ceti and Flare stars: http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/fall03.shtml Bright Supernovae and Hypernovae Tom Boles website: http://www.coddenhamobservatories.org/ Dave Bishop’s Supernova pages: http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html Tim Puckett’s site: http://www.cometwatch.com/search.html Tenagra Observatories site: http://www.tenagraobservatories.com/ Nearby Supernova Factory: http://snfactory.lbl.gov/ Katzmann Automatic Imaging Telescope (Lick Observatory): http://astron.berkeley.edu/bait/ kait.html SLOAN Digital Sky Survey: http://www.sdss.org/ CBAT/IAU suspect Supernova minor planet checker: http://scully.harvard.edu/cgi/CheckSN CBAT/IAU list of all Supernovae: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Supernovae.html CBAT/IAU list of recent Supernovae: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/RecentSupernovae. html Rainbow Optics Spectroscopes: http://www.starspectroscope.com/ Guide 8.0 planetarium/telescope control software: http://www.projectpluto.com/ SBIG spectrometer user group: http://groups.yahoo.com/invite/SBIG-SGS Dominic Ford’s Grepnova software: http://www-jcsu.jesus.cam.ac.uk/dcf21/astronomy.html Galaxy Groups and Clusters observing guide: http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/ galaxygroups/ Galaxy Triplets web page: http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/triplets.htm Hickson Compact Galaxy Groups: http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/hickcatalog.htm Galaxy Catalogs Used by Supernova Patrollers Messier: Charles Messier’s eighteenth-century catalog which included 39 of the brightest galaxies. Caldwell: Patrick Moore’s favorite objects not covered by Messier – includes 35 galaxies. NGC (New General Catalog): Dreyer’s 1887 Catalog updated to 2000.0 coordinates – includes over 6000 galaxies. IC (Index Catalog): ICs 1 and 2 were extensions to the NGC in 1895 and 1907 and include over 3000 galaxies. PGC (Principal Galaxies Catalog): Almost 19,000 galaxies listed brighter than magnitude 16. MCG Morphological Catalog of Galaxies: Almost 13,000 galaxies listed brighter than magnitude 16 out of a total of almost 29,000. 230 UGC = Uppsala General Catalog: Almost 8000 galaxies listed brighter than magnitude 16. CGCG or Zwicky: Catalog of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, compiled by Fritz Zwicky – 9134 objects. Markarian: 1469 galaxies with an unusually high blue or UV color excess. Arp: An atlas of 338 peculiar or interacting galaxies compiled by Halton Arp. Resources Hickson: A list of 100 compact galaxy groups Abell Cluster: A catalog of 4073 galaxy clusters compiled by George Abell. Roughly 30 of these clusters are within visual range of amateurs with large telescopes. The Atlas of Compact Galaxy Trios, by Miles Paul, may be useful to supernova patrollers hoping to bag three galaxies at once on their CCD chips. Paul listed 118 objects in his catalog (see http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/triplets.htm) Active Galaxies Bill Keel’s Active Galaxies page: www.astr.ua.edu/keel/agn/ Manchester University Active Galaxies Newsletter: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/agnews/html/ issue114/ Veron catalog of active galaxies: www.obs-hp.fr/www/catalogues/veron2_10/veron2_10.html Blazar links web page: http://astro.fisica.unipg.it/blazarsintheweb.htm Gamma Ray Bursters AAVSO High Energy Digests: www.aavso.org/mailman/listinfo/aavso-hen AAVSO High Energy web page: www.aavso.org/observing/programs/hen/ AAVSO mobile phone and pager alerts: www.aavso.org/observing/programs/hen/filterdatabase. shtml How to Do Visual and CCD Photometry AAVSO photometry pages: www.aavso.org/observing/programs/ccd/manual/4.shtml; http:// www.aavso.org/observing/programs/ccd/ccdnew.shtml Some Flat Field Box websites: www.ghg.net/cshaw/flat.htm; http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ observatory/flatfield.htm; http://home.arcor.de/j_stein/tips1_e.html Software Bisque (The Sky, CCDSoft and the Paramount ME): http://www.bisque.com/ IRIS (powerful freeware): www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm. AIP4Win can be ordered from Willmann Bell at: www.willbell.com/aip/index.htm Peranso (period analysis software): www.cbabelgium.com Thumbnail Atlas of Selected CVs, Recurrent Novae, and Flare Stars The following three pages of thumbnail images show a selection of high-priority CV targets, re- current nova fields, and flare star fields covered in Chapters 1–3. The fields have been produced from the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Digital Sky Survey (STScI DSS) and are 5 arcminutes wide with north at the top. In some cases where the fields are deep in the Milky Way regions (i.e., in Sagittarius and Scorpius) the star fields are hopelessly cluttered but may still be of use. The final field for Barnard’s star is 10 arcminutes high and emphasizes the motion of the star north in the 40 years (1955–1995) between successive surveys. In each case the field is labeled and the object of interest arrowed. 231 232 Resources 233 Resources 234 Resources September 18, 2008 Time: 7:31am t1-v1.0 235 [235–238] Index AAVSO (American Association of British Astronomical Association Cones (retinal), 198 Variable Star Observers), 15, 16, (BAA), 15, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, Core collapse supernovae, 122–124, 28, 45, 46, 87, 90, 112, 157, 181, 33, 37, 38, 44, 51, 52, 61, 112, 166, 130, 133, 134, 140 188, 189, 190, 202, 203, 208, 216 189, 201, 202, 203, 208, 224 Cosmic rays, 105, 126, 158, 167, 177 Absolute magnitude, 3, 17, 18, 47, British nova discoverers, 64–66 Cosmological Constant, 158 114, 115, 118, 125, 128, 133, 134, Buczynski, Denis, 23, 24, 25, 53, 54, Crab nebula, 129 135, 140, 160, 162, 185, 222 64, 82 Absorption spectra, 83, 106, 183 Dark adaption, 198–202 Accretion, 11, 12, 59, 60, 88, 95, 122 Caldwell Catalog, 139 Dark Energy, 125 Accretion disks, 1, 2, 4–8, 9–14, 24, Caldwell Catalog Galaxies, 139 Dark Frames, 208, 211–213, 215, 25, 47, 48, 53, 59, 60, 121, 154, Cassiopeia A (Cas A), 54, 70, 74, 217, 219, 222 161, 164, 165, 167, 169 129, 131 Dawes, William Rutter, 16 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) Cataclysmic variables Degeneracy pressure, 47, —3C 279, 161, 162, 172 —1502+09 Boo, 18, 35–36 121–122, 123 —3C 66A, 167–168, 172 —CG Dra, 20, 37–38 Denning,