Related papers: The hunt for old novae

We analyse the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey light curves of 835 spectroscopically confirmed white dwarf plus main-sequence binaries from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with g<19, in search of new eclipsing systems. We identify…

V1017 Sgr is a classical nova (in 1919) that displayed an earlier dwarf nova eruption (in 1901), and two more dwarf nova events (in 1973 and 1991). Previous work on this bright system in quiescence (V=13.5) has only been a few isolated…

U Sco is a recurrent nova with eleven observed eruptions, most recently in 2010.1 and 2022.4. I report on my program (running since 1989) of measuring eclipse times and brightnesses of U Sco in quiescence, from 2010 to 2022. The orbital…

In the course of a long-term project investigating classical novae with large outburst amplitudes, we have performed optical spectroscopy of several old-nova candidates. We here present the spectra of the candidates V630 Sgr, XX Tau, CQ…

Of the 350 or more known Galactic classical novae, only a handful of them, the recurrent novae, have been observed in outburst more than once. At least eight of these recurrents are known to harbour evolved secondary stars, rather than the…

We redetermine the relationship between absolute magnitude and orbital period for dwarf novae, based on 46 stars with good distance estimates. This improves upon Warner's previous relation, building upon today's improved estimates of…

Spectra of 38 candidate or known cataclysmic variables are presented. Most are candidate dwarf novae or systems containing possible highly magnetic white dwarfs, while a few (KR Aur, LS Peg, V380 Oph and V694 Mon) are previously known…

I report on the cumulative results from a program started 24 years ago designed to measure the orbital period change of recurrent novae (RNe) across an eruption. The goal is to use the orbital period change to measure the mass ejected…

The March 2011 outburst of the poorly-studied cataclysmic variable NSV 1436 offered an opportunity to decide between dwarf nova and recurrent nova classifications. We use seven daily observations in the X-ray and UV by the Swift satellite,…

As part of a project to better characterize comparatively bright, yet little studied cataclysmic variables time resolved photometry of the three eclipsing novalike variables EC 21178-5417, GS Pav und V345 Pav is presented. Previously known…

I report on the discovery of the orbital periods of three recurrent novae in our galaxy. V745 Sco has an orbital period of 510+-20 days with ellipsoidal modulations, based on SMARTS photometry from 2004-2008. V3890 Sgr has an orbital period…

Novae have been reported as transients for more than two thousand years. Their bright optical outbursts are the result of explosive nuclear burning of gas accreted from a binary companion onto a white dwarf. Novae containing a white dwarf…

We obtained time-series radial velocity spectroscopy of twenty cataclysmic variable stars, with the aim of determining orbital periods P_orb. All of the stars reported here prove to have P_orb > 3.5 h. For sixteen of the stars, these are…

The only well-studied red nova progenitor (V1309 Sco) was a contact binary with a 1.4-day period. The prospects for searching for similar systems, as well as stellar merger candidates in general, are explored in this work. The photospheric…

DV UMa is an eclipsing dwarf nova with an orbital period of $\sim2.06$ h, which lies just at the bottom edge of the period gap. To detect its orbital period changes we present 12 new mid-eclipse times by using our CCD photometric data and…

Currently, it may take days for a bright nova outburst to be detected. With the few exceptions, little is known about novae behaviour prior to maximum light. A theoretically-predicted population of ultra-fast novae with t2<1d is evading…

Orbits of 55 visual binary stars are computed using recent speckle interferometry data from the SOAR telescope: 33 first-time orbits and 22 revisions of previous orbit calculations. The orbital periods range from 1.4 to 370 years, the…

V383Sco was discovered to be an eclipsing binary at the beginning of the XX century. This system has one of the longest orbital periods known (13.5yr) and was initially classified as a zet_Aur-type variable. It was then forgotten for…

Nova outbursts are the result of strong thermonuclear runaways on the surface of a white dwarf accreting Hydrogen-rich material from a small mass companion. These giant explosions cause the star to increase its brightness by hundreds of…

We present the period analysis of unfiltered photometric observations of V5116 Sgr (Nova Sgr 2005 #2) and we search for superhump candidates in novae remnants. The PDM method for period analysis is used. The masses of the novae componets…