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"Peremennye Zvezdy", Prilozhenie, vol. 9, N 19 (2009)

Long Outburst of SDSS J204448.92-045928.8

P. Wils
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Belgium

ISSN 2221–0474

Received:   9.04.2009;   accepted:   17.06.2009
(E-mail for contact: patrickwils@yahoo.com)

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Star Name: SDSS J204448.92-045928.8 Coordinates (J2000): 20 44 48.92, -04 59 28.8 Variability type: UG;   Limits, System: 14.3 - 16.7: (V);     Period: Epoch: JD

Remarks:

SDSS J204448.92-045928.8 is a cataclysmic variable (CV) found in the SDSS survey (Szkody et al. 2003). Peters and Thorstensen (2005) determined its orbital period to be 1.68 days, unusually long for a CV. In quiescence the object is around mag. 16.5 in V. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) found SDSS J204448.92-045928.8 to be in outburst in July 2008 (http://www.galex.caltech.edu/researcher/tdsalerts.html) from a normal magnitude around 19 in NUV and FUV, rising to mag. 14.7. The Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS; Drake et al. 2009) observed the object at its normal brightness around mag 16.5, one month prior to the GALEX outburst detection. In August also ASAS (Pojmanski 2002) observed the ouburst near mag. 14.5V. The available data show the outburst to be a long one, lasting more than a month, which is also unusual for a dwarf nova. No other outburst of SDSS J204448.92-045928.8 has been detected before. Because of its long orbital period and long rounded outburst of about 2 magnitudes in V, this object is very similar to V630 Cas and the old nova GK Per. This study is based on observations made with the NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer. GALEX is operated for NASA by Caltech under NASA contract NAS5-98034.

References:

Drake, A.J., Djorgovski, S.G., Mahabal, A., et al., 2009, Astrophys. J., 696, 870 Peters, C.S., Thorstensen, J.R., 2005, PASP, 117, 1386 Pojmanski, G., 2002, Acta Astronomica, 52, 397 Szkody, P., Fraser, O., Silvestri, N., et al., 2003, Astron. J., 126, 1499