Back in quiescence

Bob Koff has just sent me the observation indicating that RZ LMi is in quiescence at magitude of 16.7.

End of the superoutburst?

The combined data of David Boyd, Pawel Kankiewicz and Bob Koff show interesting standstill followed by a quick decrease of the brightness indicating most probably the end of the superoutburst.

What a coverage!

Bob and Jerry again sent me their latest results. I can show you now the light curve of the present superoutburst. It looks great.

Nice superhumps again

Bob Koff and Jerry Foote sent me their long runs from last night. Their combined light curves are shown below.

Very long run

For the first time we have worked as almost Whole Earth Telescope. Below you can find the light curve combined from observations of David Boyd, Bob Koff, Kosmas Gazeas and again Bob. I still wait for the data from Pawel Kankiewicz who is observing now in Kielce and will add some points at the end of the curve.

More nice superhumps

Bob Koff has just sent me his last run containing very nice superhumps shown below with points obtained by David Boyd. We can see the clear shift comming most probably from using different comparison stars.

Nice superhumps

According to the data of David Boyd, RZ LMi is showing clear superhumps and still rising. Indeed the current position on the global light curve with mean magnitude of 14.3 suggests that the star should brighten to around 14.0 mag which is typical for the begining of the superoutburst.

RZ LMi in superoutburst

David Boyd (UK) reports RZ LMi being in superoutburst showing clear superhumps and overall trend still appears to be upward. Further observations strongly needed!

Start of the superoutburst?

David Boyd reports that over approx 6 hrs last night he saw a steady rising trend from ~16.8 to ~16.5 mag. The early part of the run was through thin cloud but it then cleared. There appears to be a modulation in the data with quite a
well-defined period of 0.098 d. His nice light curve is shown below.

Still in quiescence

Last night (HJD 875.3) Bob Koff was able to get only two images of RZ LMi and found it at 16.6 mag. Thus the star is still in quiescence.

It was an outburst

Bob Koff has just clarified the situation. His newest data show clear decreasing trend indicating that RZ LMi was backing into the quiescence after next ordinary outburst. Magnified fragment of the light curve below.

Where are we?

Due to the gaps in the light curve the current situation of RZ LMi is uncertain. On HJD 869.3 it was at 15.9 mag, barely visible on stack of ten or so exposures obtained by Marcin Wardak during misty night. On HJD 873.3, according to David Boyd, it was at 14.9 mag. Recent data of Kosmas Gazeas show that RZ LMi is at around 16.0 mag. Most probably we saw an ordinary outburst. Thus the ingress of the superoutburst might appear very soon.

RZ LMi bright

David Boyd (UK) has just sent me information that he observed RZ LMi very briefly tonight at 19.00 UT during a gap in cloud cover and found it at mag 14.88 (unfiltered). No further observations have
been possible here tonight.

Waiting for the superoutburst

I have just added the light curve obtained by Kosmas Gazeas on Feb 5/6, which nicely shows the end of the ordinary outburst. As I wrote in the earlier post, Marcin Wardak (Poland) reported that RZ LMi was in the minimum on Feb 6/7.

Now we have short break in the observations partialy due to the bad weather in almost all locations but also due to the Full Moon shinning in the vicinity of RZ LMi. But starting from this night the conditions
are getting better and I strongly encourage you to observe.

Now RZ LMi should be in the another ordinary outburst and around Feb 12-14 we should expect next superoutburst. Keep observing!

RZ LMi still faint

Marcin Wardak (Poland) was observing last night. It was misty and almost Full Moon caused high brightness of sky level. RZ LMi was not visible on 180 sec exposures taken by 12-cm refractor. I am waiting for the detailed report from the observer.

RZ LMi faint

Kosmas Gazeas (Athens, Greece) was observing last night and reports RZ LMi faint sitting in quiescence. We should expect next ordinary outburst within a day or two.

Ordinary outburst

Newst data from Jerry Foote and Bob Koff show that RZ LMi is in the outburst again. What is interesting, the star during one night reached maximum and started to fade. It may indicate that this outburst will be much shorter than the explosion observed before superoutburst. Again, at the end of the run the small humps are visible.

What a light curve!

Jerry Foote has just sent me extremely interesting light curve of RZ LMi. It is still faint and started to show late superhumps. One of these humps has quite large amplitude. Additionaly, at the end of the run RZ LMi started to brighten. Do we have new outburst?

Quiescence

Data sent by Jacek Pala and obtained on nights Feb 1/2 and 2/3 clearly show that RZ LMi is now in quiescence having magnitude of around 16.5.

End of the superoutburst

The observations from last two nights, made by Jerry Foote and Bob Koff, clearly show the end of the superoutburst. During the last night RZ LMi faded from 14.3 to 14.6 mag and amplitude of the superhumps decreased significantly. It is interesting to check the existence of the late superhumps which should born very soon.