Proposal #475

Proposer	(4874) John Menke (john@menkescientific.com) obscode: MJLE
Assigned To	(3663) Dirk Terrell
Date Submitted	Jan. 6, 2024
Status	Allocated
Priority	Normal
Proposal	AZCas is an eclipsing binary with a 9 year period with very little published data. One star is an M class of about 9mag, while the second is a B star of about 11 mag. I have been conducting photometric (BVRI) and spectroscopic observation very intensively (every available night) for about four years. I have captured an excellent light curve of the primary eclipse (blue star behind red star). No one has observed the secondary eclipse, which is expected late 2024 with less than 0.o1 mag depth (red filter should be the most sensitive for this work). From my MD skies, I have no chance to accomplish this measurement. I would like to have weekly measures for the next 12 months in at least R band, preferably to <0.01mag. One problem is scintillation, another is getting good (red) comp stars (I don't know your FOV). My own analysis uses Maxim on the files, feeding CSV results into spreadsheets so I can handle the data reduction (or do you do that, too?).

Targets
Target	RA (H.HH)	Dec (D.DD)	Magnitude	Telescope	Observation Frequency	Expiration Date	Proprietary Term
AZ Cas	1.731944	61.54667	9.3	BSM_NH2	5	March 1, 2025	No

(4726) Kenneth Menzies — Jan. 18, 2024, 2:36 p.m.: Committed to NH. IMHO, this is a waste of time. You will not see an eclipse with depth <0.01 with our scopes and skies?
(4874) John Menke — Jan. 18, 2024, 4:56 p.m.: RE the negative comment by Menzies...if the skies and equipment will not plausibly reach the precision needed for 0.01 mag then this effort should not be mounted. Note, I don't need accuracy of 0.01 mag, but do need precision to 0.01mag over a couple of weeks (this would be a slow eclipse extending over months). I respect the judgement of the observers involved as to whether this makes sense to do. As I said, here in Maryland, I don't have a prayer of getting results that are good enough. John Menke

Comments on this proposal are closed.