5th Variable Stars South Symposium (Christchurch 2018)
The 2018 RASNZ Conference was held in Christchurch from Friday May 4th to Sunday May 6th. VSS held the 5th Variable Stars South Symposium immediately following the conference on the Sunday evening and Monday May 7th.
Novae – where simulations meet observations
Presented by Yael Hillman
Results of nova simulations show a strong dependence of the white dwarf (WD) mass and mass transfer rate on the observable characteristics – the eruption time and the time between eruptions. Thus, they may be used reversely to determine the WD mass and average mass tr...
QZ Carinae – 2018 update
Presented by Stan Walker, Mark Blackford and Ed Budding
The quadruple system of QZ Carinae is interesting as one of the most massive multiple star systems in our galaxy, but also challenging due to the orbital period of the eclipsing component being only 124 seconds short of six days. As a res...
R Centauri – An Interesting and Perhaps Unique Mira Star
Presented by Stan Walker and Giorgio di Scala
The first recorded maximum of R Centauri was in 1871 but reasonable coverage dates from only 1891. It displays two clear maxima, which characteristic is shared by less than a dozen others of the thousand or so well studied Mira stars. We present ob...
The multiple star systems V454 Car and HX Vel
Presented by Ed Budding, Mark Blackford, Roger Butland, (et al.)
We present combined photometric and spectroscopic analyses of the southern close binary systems V454 Car and HX Vel. High-resolution spectra of these systems were taken at the University of Canterbury Mt. John Observatory in the...
V883 Sco Period determination
Presented by Mark Blackford, Neil Butterworth and Tom Richards
In 2015 Neil Butterworth attempted to record eclipses of V833 Scorpii however predicted eclipse times using the accepted 1.29484 day period and HJD 2443285.794 epoch were clearly wrong. In order to determine the correct period we n...
When Homer Nods – reconciling our period analysis of V883 Sco with history
Presented by Tom Richards, Neil Butterworth, Mark Blackford
V883 Sco is an eclipsing binary with a V magnitude of 7.3 and widely quoted period of 1.29484 d. Observations at Townsville Observatory by NDB over three observing seasons showed this period was very wrong. MDB analysed NDB’s data and...