The Z CamPaign Year Four (Abstract)

Volume 41 number 2 (2013)

Mike Simonsen

AAVSO, 49 Bay State Road, Cambridge, MA 02138; mikesimonsen@aavso.org

Abstract

(Abstract only) Z Cam stars are a small subset of dwarf novae that exhibit standstills in their light curves. Most modern literature and catalogs of cataclysmic variables quote the number of known Z Cams to be on the order of thirty or so systems. After a three-year observing campaign and an exhaustive examination of the data in the AAVSO International Database we have trimmed that number by a third. One of the reasons for the misclassification of some systems is the fact that the definition of a Z Cam has evolved over the last eighty-five years to what it is today. We present the results of our investigation into sixty-four CVs listed at one time or another in the literature as Z Cams or possible Z Cams.