VV Cep this night

VV Cep 2017-2019 Campaign
Moderator for this forum: Ernst Pollmann
JJ Broussat
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 2:59 pm

VV Cep this night

Post by JJ Broussat »

Bonjour,
Voici le profil de cette nuit.
Cordialement.
Jean-Jacques
VV_Cep.png
VV_Cep.png (6.18 KiB) Viewed 9777 times
JJ Broussat
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 2:59 pm

Re: VV Cep this night- suite

Post by JJ Broussat »

Pour le profil pris à l'OHP, j'avais une résolution de 10840.
Cette nuit, en région parisienne, la résolution est de 15840.
Le setup est le même. Il a été démonté/remonté pour le trajet.
Aurai-je mal focalisé à l'OHP?

Merci
Cordialement.
Jean-Jacques
Jack Martin
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:31 am

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by Jack Martin »

Jean-Jacques,

Well done on keeping up the monitoring.

I see no change in the spectrum yet

We have to keep observing.

A network should be setup for monitoring 24/7, but how ?

Regards,

Jack

Essex UK
Ernst Pollmann
Posts: 461
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:16 pm

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by Ernst Pollmann »

Jack,
what does this mean: A network should be setup for monitoring 24/7, but how ?

Ernst
marcoastro+
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:12 pm

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by marcoastro+ »

Hi Jack and Ernst,

Indeed, no major changes yet.
My last spectrum is from August 7th, I had a chance of a short time clear sky, just between two heavy rain showers, thunder and lightening.
VVCEP_07082017TRYPSTM.jpg
VVCEP_07082017TRYPSTM.jpg (40.06 KiB) Viewed 9709 times

For a while now the Peakheights of the V-component reside somewhere between 3 and 3.5 while the R -component fluctuates between 2.20 - 2.5.
Assuming mass transfer has taken place earlier, it is quite possible the predicted/calculated start of the eclipse will be later. If it is 68 days later then we can expect it to happen around the beginning of October! We could have a more precise guess if we know the orbital movements of both stars over the last year.

Monitoring on a "nightly" basis is possible if we can use a remote spectroscopy installation. Of course this is a quite expensive project, but with a team doable.
A nice place could be found with the e-Eye project.
http://entreencinasyestrellas.es/

Kind regards,
Marc.
Robin Leadbeater
Posts: 1926
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 4:41 pm
Contact:

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by Robin Leadbeater »

Hi Marc,

Spectroscopy using remotely operated telescopes is tough to do. There are lots of robotic scopes around for amateurs to use but as far as I am aware none are equipped with spectrographs. Do you know of any remotely operated high resolution spectrographs available for amateur use? AAVSO purchased eShels a few years ago for a couple of their robotic telescopes but never successfully commissioned them. They do have a couple of Star Analysers though, installed filter wheels on a couple of their telescopes which can be accessed remotely, though as far as I can tell, nobody uses them.

Robin
LHIRES III #29 ATIK314 ALPY 600/200 ATIK428 Star Analyser 100/200 C11 EQ6
http://www.threehillsobservatory.co.uk
marcoastro+
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:12 pm

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by marcoastro+ »

Indeed, Robin, not so evident, but as remote-astrophotography has known its evolution, remote spectroscopy is coming after.
Several projects will appear in the near future.
A nice project, I'm following, is the IOWA Robotic Observatory which is testing this summer a new Echelle medium resolution spectrograph to be used for remote spectroscopy.

http://astro.physics.uiowa.edu/iro/equi ... meter.html


Kind regards,
Marc.
Ernst Pollmann
Posts: 461
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:16 pm

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by Ernst Pollmann »

Hi Marc,
you wrote:
Assuming mass transfer has taken place earlier, it is quite possible the predicted/calculated start of the eclipse will be later.

In that context Phil Bennet wrote here at the forum:
http://www.spectro-aras.com/forum/viewt ... nnet#p5533

“The stars appear to be well-separated, and the M supergiant never comes close to filling its Roche lobe. There is mass accretion onto the hot companion, but this is from *wind* accretion -- gas from the wind of the M supergiant that just happens to be intercepted, and gravitationally captured, by the hot companion.”

Furthermore we are at present still around the phase of the apastron (phase 0.63; based on the orbital elements of Wright 1977) what means, there can not be explicit mass transfer in that orbital phase between the components, the distance between the M star and the hot companion is approx. 10-15 AU. As at all, mass transfer takes place only around the phase of the periastron.

Even if the eclipse comes later than the prediction says, there is no reason to become un-patiently. Until now the ARAS community has been able to observe a very well defined base line for both, the EW and peak height. If I see what quality in terms of the definition of the starting point during the last eclipse Kawabata et al. and Möllenhoff/Schaifers have achieved, I would say that our results until now are much better.

And in addition we are in the lucky position to have someone in our community, who contributes with his two remote observatories as much as it possible: Joan Guarro from Barcelona. Joan offers echelle spectra in a high quality which meet all what we could get.
So, from my point of view we should be patiently as we did until now.

Best wishes,
Ernst
Last edited by Ernst Pollmann on Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Andrew Smith
Posts: 321
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:23 pm

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by Andrew Smith »

Marc & Robin, Remote operation is certainly possible with the right software and hardware. The Liverpool Telescope is run completely autonomously and has, if I recall correctly, two spectrographs. At the other end of the scale I operate my R ~ 8000 echelle autonomously but close by ( I manually open and close the roof). It will soon be joined by a second R ~ 20,000 spectrograph both fiber fed via a Shelyak Fiber guide head as used on the eShel.

Regards Andrew
marcoastro+
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:12 pm

Re: VV Cep this night

Post by marcoastro+ »

Hi Ernst,

With the text: " assuming mass transfer has taken place earlier " I had in mind a possible mass transfer at the former peri-astron of course by a wind driven mechanism ,as the Roche lobe is not filled. That is called a dynamical mass transfer. When the wind was strong enough at that time this could have had an underestimated factor contributing to the mass transfer.

Anyway, as you write so correctly, we must be patient, of course.
Nevertheless VV Cephei is a tough couple of binaries and is challenging science the same way.
I'm glad to make some "minor" contributions to this excellent effort by amateurs.

Kind regards,
Marc.
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