a visit to Greensboro University
During a holiday trip in US, i had the opportunity to visit my friend Anatoly Miroshnichenko and his colleague Steve Danford at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro (UNCG).
Here is a small report of a two days and one night spent there.
Greensboro is an average town at extreme west of North Carolina. The landscape is essentially composed of large forest and small hills with numerous lakes and rivers. Everything is tree and grass. Only downtown emerge from this green ocean.
UNCG campus is a true american Campus. Sparse buildings among a large surface with a typical north carolina architecture, linked by straight roads, parkings, restaurants and offices.
Anatoly Miroschnishenko in front of the Science Department
Astrophysics department, several publications and professors offices. Here we find classrooms and a planetarium. Some observations are organized from the top of the building with small instruments.
After an afternoon working on Audela we went to the university observatory calling Three College Observatory (TCO), located 45mm away.
TCO main instrument is a 0,80m cassegrain reflector under a huge dome with photometry and spectroscopy abilities. Visual observation is often practised during public session. The guiding and pointing are very precise doesn't need much corrections.
We were lucky to have a clear sky during all the night setting up the eshell spectrophaph, running under Audela environement and gathering spectra of del sco, alp oph and a radial velocity standart star.
Eshell spectrograph
Steve setting up the eshell injection unit to prime focus
Anatoly looking at an echellogramm
Night session
And me, enjoying, sky grabbed by earth
TCO is an efficiency instrument able to support any stellar observations, offering available data to UNCG astronomers and students. Future devellopements are a tip tilt system and a better ccd camera.
I will be be back there, sure.
Call for CH cyg observation
A call for observations of the famous symbiotic star, one of the brightest, CH cyg has been launched by Margaritta Karovska. This is to support observations planned for the next two weeks in X ray (CHANDRA) and otical/UV (HST) domains.
Observations are gathered on this page by the ARAS group http://www.astrosurf.com/aras/surveys/chcyg/index.html
A run of three weeks of observations is ongoing with my eshell spectrograph and 0.35m LX200 telescope.
I organized my observing session is divide in two parts. First part until midnight Be program, mainly FF cam and another Be, plus one star on other Pro am programs, FS cma object, eps aur or vv cep. Then in the second part I let the telescope follow CH cyg from midnight to 6 am, from 17° elevation to 70° at sunrise, taking 1200s exposures during 6H. Each spectra is the result of three indivdual exposures. This is to thoroughly support observations by the two space telescopes.
Up to date i had 23H exposure, 23 echelle spectra covering 4280 to 7360A. Lines of interest are H beta, [OIII]5008 and H alpha
Example for one night of observation with a transient atmospheric line, visible only at low elevation in the beginning of all the series i took in order 41. Auroral activities was intense these last days and the Chandra observations has to be delayed to end of the week or the beginning of the next week.
Order 34, around H alpha with variations on the blue part of the H alpha line, maybe a sign of jet.
This is another example of what amateur can do as ground support of important space campaign.
Exciting isn't it ?
Update: time series of 300s exposure on H alpha http://www.astrosurf.com/garrel/webb_CHcyg/Vspec_CH_cyg_300serie.html
FF cam, mid March report
FF cam is the weirdest thing i had never observed.
Daily spectras are differents, intensities variation, shape, double or single peak, all configurations of the h alpha line for a Be star are possible.
4 differents observers are following this challenging star. Three echelle spectrographs (Eshell) and one long slit H alpha centered spectrograph (LhiresIII) with telescopes from 0.28m to 0.80m. 3 in Europe and 1 in US.
Summary of the H alpha profiles:
http://www.astrosurf.com/garrel/webFFcam_March19/Vspec_objet.html
And some plots to understand the behavior of this star:
Dynagraph, heliocentric plot of the 2D spectra, H alpha at the center for every dates. Jan 6, at bottom, March 14 top. Telluric lines are straight absorption lines near H alpha, look at the absorption lines at right of H alpha who has a periodic radial velocity different from H alpha beahavior, best seen in the color dynagraph.
eW courbe, seems that a period exist. We need more observations, as often..
The quest continue
Update, comments from the PI: Anatoly Miroshnichenko, University of North Carolina, Greenboro USA
March, 22: "The FF Cam data do look interesting. I'm wondering what are the
average wavelengths of those three absorption lines that have a
different period from that of the Halpha line? There are not many
photospheric lines expected between Halpha and 6615 A. Some examples
are CII lines at 6577 and 6582 A for early B-type stars, but mostly
the lines in that region are telluric."
March 23: "Indeed, some absorption lines are present. They may belong to a cool
star, but in this case you can also find them in other echelle orders.
The carbon lines (6577 and 6582 A) I was talking about belong to the
photosphere of an early-B type star, not to a carbon WD. There are no
lines at these positions in your spectra.
The 8-day period is very short orbital period of a binary. If this is
true, then the distance between the stars of the binary is very small
and the Be disk should be small. This may explain the fast variations
of the H-alpha line profile. The material gets out of the star and
quickly fills the disk, but the material supply is unstable and the
material spatial distribution changes quickly leading to changes of
the line profile. If the disk is small, the H-alpha emission will
never be strong. This is what is observed."
Talk of Anatoly Miroshnichenko on delta sco 2010/2011
Miroshnichenko_DeltaSco_Iguassu_2012
Talk of Anatoly Miroshnichenko on delta sco 2010/2011 at Feb, 2012 ESO conference on hot stars in Brazil
request for photmetry support by TAROT and amateur observers
I've sent a request to Alain Klotz, TAROT and some observers in France for a photmetry support of FF cam. I need a B V measure in Jonhson-Cousin system.
Message en Français pour un support photométrique sur FF cam
Il s'avère d'aprés le suivis spectrométrique que cette étoile n'est pas une Be classique mais présente une variabilité spectrale hors du commun. Pas d'exemples connus à ce niveau de variabilité, profil et intensité. On échantillonne actuellement la période mais aprés un mois de mesures, avec un spectre échelle (R10000) tous les jours on ne retombe pas sur nos pieds, soit on sous échantillonne soit il faut attendre. Donc le suivis spectrométrique est trés intense.
Un exces Ir et une source soft X associé nous font pensé mais plutôt une Be/X, appartenant donc au groupe des highmass binaries X. On peut aussi pensé à une B[e] du groupe des Fs cma, telle que CT cam, voisine mais d'un type spectral different auquel cas un compagnon froid est attendus
Bref cette étoile a été classé à la légère. On ne peut l'ignorer car dans un cas comme dans l'autre elle appartient à un groupe rare d'étoiles. il faut faire la SED, le module de distance, avec la photométrie B-V et les raies interstellaires ainsi que la classification spectrale, à nôtre avis plus proche de B9 voire A0, les raies MgII sont plus intense que HeI.
Pour cela j'aimerai avoir des mesures B, V fiables, ponctuelles, rien sur l'AAVSO ou l'AFOEV, mais inutile de faire une time serie, nous pensons que les variations spectrales sont relativement trop faibles pour être perçues en photométrie.
J'ai recherché quelques étoiles à l'indice de couleur favorable dans le champs sur Simbad, mais je suis pas un pro de la photométrie du tout alors je ne sais pas exactement quelle sont les contraintes instrumentales de chacuns.
Dans un champs de 1° http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-coo?Coord=07+46+52.85434%2B81+40+56.7858&CooFrame=ICRS&CooEqui=2000.0&CooEpoch=J2000&Radius=60.0&Radius.unit=arcmin&submit=get+the+list+of+objects
J'ai trouvé ça à
B-V 0, peut être la plus interressante
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346229&Name=HR%20%202709&submit=submit
B-V 0.1
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346400&Name=TYC%204546-1935-1&submit=submit
B-V 0.2
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346235&Name=BD%2b81%20%20%20250&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346385&Name=TYC%204546-1191-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346351&Name=TYC%204539-276-1&submit=submit
B-V 0.3
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346365&Name=TYC%204539-1011-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346360&Name=TYC%204539-790-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346361&Name=TYC%204539-813-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346246&Name=BD%2b82%20%20%20226&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346368&Name=TYC%204539-1158-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346246&Name=BD%2b82%20%20%20226&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346402&Name=TYC%204546-2011-1&submit=submit
B-V 0.4
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346248&Name=HD%20%2065753&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346200&Name=BD%2b82%20%20%20214&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346359&Name=TYC%204539-788-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346389&Name=TYC%204546-1479-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346366&Name=TYC%204539-1047-1&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346161&Name=BD%2b82%20%20%20205&submit=submit
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40346231&Name=BD%2b81%20%20%20244&submit=submit
Amitiés à tous
Thierry Garrel
FF cam, January behavior of the H alpha line
I've started a spectral monitoring of one my favorite star, FF cam.
I discovered this star in 2009 by a routine survey of Be stars. Considering the Bess program, this star was observed only once par year before. I was surprised in 2009 in two consecutives nights, while redoing spectra due to bad SNR, to see how much the h alpha profile has changed. I did some others spectra in 2009 showing a great activities in H alpha and let it down for a while. At this time i was using a LhiresIII spectrograph, centered on H alpha with a power of resolution of 15000.
In the beginning of January i restarted a monitoring with my eshell setup, covering the whole optical window. I've took nearly one échelle spectra every night from Jan, 6th trying to described completely the behavior of this star.
Associated with a soft X source, this star is certainly an unknown Be/X binaries with orbit phase dependent H alpha profile. These binaries are composed of B type dwarf star and a compact object, white dwarf neutron star or black holes orbiting close from each other. Nearly 4 weeks of daily observations cannot let find any period in the equivalent widht (strenght of the line) or profile in H alpha. More observations are needed, as Be/X binaries may have period from tens of days to tens of weeks.
So first results, sent to Anatoly Miroshnichenko University of North carolina, are presenting here, only in H alpha for the moment. All échelle spectra are available in Bess database. Mean SNR is around 70, power of resolution is 10000, dispersion 0.1A.
I don't know apart Sheliak, bet Lyr, such spectra activity. You may look to FF cam in arasbeam to have a quick look the the H alpha line
Enjoy observing this star as often as you can, it is circumpolar. It belongs to the realm of the rare aftermath stellar binaries among the Be star.
Update: Comments from Anatoly Miroshnichenko (University of Greenborough, North Carolina):
"I looked at the information on FF Cam. It has a near-IR excess which
is partly due to the interstellar extinction and partly to the
circumstellar gas radiation. What is more interesting is that it is
associated with an X-ray source. This may indicate that it is an
Be/X-ray binary system. What is needed is a UBV photometry and a
measurement of the strengths of the diffuse interstellar bands at
5780, 5797, and/or 6614 A. I think I see them in your eshelle spectra
(at least 5780). You (or I) can sum up all your data for the spectral
order that contains this band to increase the signal-to-noise ratio.
This band equivalent width correlates with the interstellar extinction
(Av). In combination with the photometry and some other spectral
features (for example, the line intensity ratio of HeI 4471 and Mg II
4481), this will get us the spectral type and an estimate of the
circumstellar reddening. Your spectra already show that the Be star
has a mid-B spectral type (perhaps, B4-B5 or so), because the Mg II
line is stronger than the He I line. I can look at these issues
closely and ask colleagues for an optical photometry.
Cheers,
Anatoly"
Another high mass X binaries in Cameolopardis is CT cam who is a B[e], belonging to FS cma group. It is known to have a black hole around a B supergiant, with transient X ray ouburst. May FF cam belonging to the FS cma group too as it has a IR excess ?
Update: Webpage on H alpha spectra of FF cam http://www.astrosurf.com/garrel/FFcam.html
Hi res echelle spectra of the filly dot habitat bulb, neon candle bulb, stroboscope xenon light, plasma ball
I made a high SNR and high resolution spectra of a filly lamp, dot model, with lines of argon, xenon and neon inside. It is very usefull to calibrate low and high res spectra specially in the blue domain. I was needing it for my own low resolution spectra work.
Also a spectra of a flame bulb, candle like, not a lot of lines, only neon.(20111211_200329_flamme_60x60s_TGarrel)
Calibatrion is made on thorium argon lines, eshell spectroscope, rms cal is better than 0.01A, Resolution is 10000, exposure time is 120X60s with a ST10XME ccd camera.
Enjoy !
 |
| De Observatoire |
Fit file: 20111207_181238_fillydots_120x60s_TGarrel
Dat file: 20111207_181238_fillydots_TGarrel
Delta sco HeII calibration method with a filly lamp (C.Buil) http://astrosurf.com/buil/isis/He_calibration/method.htm
(C.Buil) Dot filly lamp
Update: Two other sources of calibration:
A plasma ball, a mix with neon and argon with lightning inside. A lack of lines in the middle of optical domain make it not a good source of calibration. But it"s still funny and nice.
20120109_162430_plasma_15x60s_P_1C_TGarrel
A stroboscope xenon projector. Well you usually met this stuff in night club. It may be interesting in observatory too with a very rich spectra full of calibrations lines on the whole optical spectrum. 15 euros, a good alternative to the dot filly lamp cause lines are more intense and may be able to illuminate the full aperture of the telescope.
Note: a continnum is present in this lamp and lines are quite large.
fit: 20120109_155701_stroboscope_20x5s_TGarrel
dat: 20120109_155701_stroboscope_20x5s_TGarrel
Deux sessions d'observation en 6mn
Je m'amuse toujours avec la camera ultra grand champs. Des angles differents, pendant de longues heures d'observation sur deux nuits pour epier le ciel et le télescope.
WR 134, HeII 5411
Following the HeII4686 and the HeI5876 here is the study of the HeII5411 line of the wolf rayet star WR134.
I present a time serie of three spectra taken during a total exposure of 2H40, with 2X1h spectra and 1X40minutes for the last one.
small active absorption features are readily visible at the top of the line and transient emission line appears at Vr 2200km/s.
SNR of a 3600s exposure is around 110 at 5471A, Resolving power is 12000, dispersion 0.1A. All spectra are corrected from instrumental response on a A type star (Vega), as usual, classical pre processing and data reduction with Audela.
Overall summ of the three spectra, 9600s total exposure
Zip files with Fit spectra 20111212_193424_WR134__HeII5411_TGarrel
I will join the campaign with my echelle setup only if these spectra present an interest to the Convento campaign. Submission to a professionnal advice is welcome.
Ref: Moffat 2000,
Update: Here is a comment from Thierry Morel, another Thierry, who is a PI in WR star from a long time; So it seems that the data are in the range on what to be expected from this campaign. I will join it.
"Hi (the other) Thierry,
Very nice spectra. Difficult to tell by eye whether there are indeed
significant variations between the three exposures at the top of the line.
Concerning the feature at 2200 km/s, to me it looks as an artifact. The
fact that the profile is highly asymmetric is likely to be due to CIRs.
The profile does not seem to evolve much during the ~2-3 hrs of
observations because this only corresponds to 0.04 in phase (period ~ 2.25
days). I am pretty sure that if you observe it once again within the next
few days then the profile will be substantially different. To me obtaining
such high-quality spectra over a long time span is exactly what this
campaign is about and so I would warmly encourage you to carry on!
Cheers,
Thierry "
THIERRY MOREL et All, 1999
Test of a new home made skycam
I made a sky cam with a DMK31usb camera and a 24mm f1.8 Zuiko lens.
First light during a whole observing session, about 8h of video, 1 image every minutes. The aim is sky monitoring during observation, detection of cloud and in the future, detection and photometry of transient phenomena.
Note, a possible evolution is to use this cam as a large field camera, with astrometry refinement to point faint targets. We will see...
Update, new cam, full moon
New upgrade, All Sky cam with a 2.8mm f1.8 C-CS lens, crescent moon rise
New All sky camera with three UFO captured on the west horizon. Observed with binoculars, it was in fact Chinese lanterns. I did not make any spectra to confirm it :-)
WR 134, HeI 5876
Following the study of HeII4686, here is the HeI 5876 extracted from an order of an eshell spectrum of 9600s exposure and sampled to 3600s and 7200s for comparison.
SNR is better than in the blue region, normal with the better sensitivity of the ccd, SNR50 around 5972A.
Straight absorption are Na-D interstellar absorption, with a bump inside. "The bumps in the core of the NaI D-lines is due to two present components. One forms in our spiral arm, the other one forms in the next spiral arm. Typically this is a sign of a distant object, unless there are many interstellar clouds in the line of sight. But in this direction, this means that the object is located in the Perseus arm, i.e. at least 1.5-2.0 kpc from the Sun." by A.Miroshnichenko
I'm not a specialist of WR star spectra and i'm very surprise by this profile.
Note there is no intensities variations, observed in previous study on HeII4686, during the 9600s exposure. Continnum not normalized, just rescaled to 1
blue 3600s, green 7200s, light blue 9600s
Bess Fit format spectra:20111212_173246_WR134_HeI5876_TGarrel
WR 134, HeII4686
Here is a study of the HeII4686 profile variation depending of the exposure time of WR134, a wolf rayet star subject of a 2013 pro am campaign from the Convento group
The SNR requirement on 1hour exposure for this campaign is about 200. The resolution must be better than 1A, R5000 at HeII4686.
Here is an individual order of an echelle spectra taken during the night of Dec, 12th. The sky conditions were excellent and the object was at 80° high at the beginning of exposures. 2H40 exposure were taken, under good seing and transparency.
Resolving power is 10000 and dispersion 0.1A. Unfortunately a SNR of 200 cannot be reach with my principal instrument (0.35m f5 schmidt cassegrain, fiber feed eshell spectroscope, ST10XME camera) in one hour. The snr of my best spectrum is about 20 at the position 4733A.
Note the evolution of the intensitie for the longuest exposure, same date. Spectra are not normalized but rescaled to fit the continuum at 1.
Standart pre processing (Bias, Dark, flatfield) and spectra reduction under Audela Calibration on a thor arg lamp
Blue 3600s, green 7200s, Light blue 9600s
Spectra fit files 20111212_173246_WR134_HeII4686_TGarrel
An active V442 and outburst
In 2010, August, i discovered an outburst of the Be star V442 and. That was my 2nd discovered outburst during 2010 on a total of three up to date.
Unlike the others, this outburst occurred during a period of nine month, between two observations, and last for less than 6 months. It was very short for a Be outburst.
The star return to quiescent stage recently these days. It gave some of the most animate Be spectra i have never done.
Below are animations of my raw spectra, telluric lines removed animation spectra and finally equivalent width on 6550 6675.
More analysis would coming soon
All spectra are available on Bess
Update:
Hi resolution échelle spectra of SN2011fe
I've finally managed to catch an échelle spectra of SN2011fe with my C14 spectrograph equipment (calling DeNise in the memories of my grand mother) observatories
This spectra is the sum of 15 exposures of 900s taken in two nights, September 22 and 23. As seen here http://www.astrosurf.com/aras/surveys/supernovae/sn2011fe/obs.html the overall shape of the spectra doesn't change in this period. The SN was at 10.5 Vmag and low over the horizon.
The échelle spectrograph is an Eshell model from Sheliak Instruments (http://www.shelyak.com/rubrique.php?id_rubrique=7), fiber feed from a F5 14" schmidt cassegrain telescope on an Altaz mount. The slit is a hole of 50µm and the ccd is a Sbig ST10XME with a pixel size of 6.8µm and a read out of 8.8e- (http://www.sbig.com/ST-10XME-C2.html).
Spectral coverage is about 291nm from 4440A to 7352A at a mean resolution of 10500 and a dispersion of 0.1A/pix. Data reduction of order 31 to 49 was made under Audela environment uising the eshell spectra reduction pipeline (http://whttp://www.audela.org). The spectra was dark current corrected and tungsten(2700K) flat field divided. An instrumental response with a correction of atmospheric extinction in relative flux to the continuum was made with a low resolution spectra from françois Teyssier (http://www.astronomie-amateur.fr/feuilles/SuperNovae.html).
Primary image, reducted to 40% 
Low res overall spectra Jpg(spcAudace) 
Zip package with full resolution Fit 1D orders, and order table 20110922_190023_SN2011fe_15x900s_TGarrel
Juste a look to 3s exp of the guiding cam (Lodestar) 
It was an exiting experience to dispersed the light of such a far object from my garden.
SN2011 fe
New observation and firstime supernova for me ! A light coming from 20 millons Ly !
At V mag nearly 10.5, this SN is in the range of both low and high resolution amateur spectroscopy. Cause of the doppler broadening effect, the spectral lines are very large and oversize my spectral domain, here around HeII 4686A.
But tiny lines in the spectrum maybe insterstellar and intergalactic (!) absorption useful to calculate the extinction of the supernova and then the true brightness and distance (Diffuse interstellar bands (DIB): co-planar doubly excited He and metal atoms embedded in Rydberg Matter http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.3179).
An international amateur campaign is covering this extraordinary event http://www.astrosurf.com/aras/surveys/supernovae/sn2011dh/obs.htm
an insteresting website in doing spectroscopy on the SN http://www.stargazing.net/david/spectroscopy/SN2011fe.html
The spectrum was taken with a CN212 telescope (212mm F/D10) and a LhiresIII spectrocope with a 2400 l/mm grate and a 35µm slit, The calibration was made on a Filly lamp with four Xe lines, resolution calculated on the calibration lines is around 8000. The spectral domain is center on 4686, HeII line without doppler effect. The spectra was dark current corrected and flat field (tungsten 2700°k) divided. No instrumental response was applied. A cosmetic correction, due to cosmic rays, was applied between 4671.349A and 4673.693A.
Next step is for me to use my echelle spectroscope and SC14 to capture the whole spectrum at an average resolution of 10000.
Guiding cam and spectra capture during the night :
Spectra 2D, reduction by Spc_Audace (http://bmauclaire.free.fr/spcaudace/)
Final profile, relative flux instensity rescale at 1 around 4680
Fit file spectra: _SN2011fe_4686_20110920_795
IAC 80 Video
Some youtube videos of our Team, Telescope and Teide observatory.
IAC80, a mission on delta scorpii at the Teide
For nine nights i have been there in good compagny. http://www.iac.es/eno.php?op1=3&lang=en
This mission was about the peri-astron of delta scopii and was a real success.
We have got in nine nights 30 Halpha spectra, 30 HeII 4500, 4686 and one H gamma. All taken with a LhiresIII 2400gr/mm and ST10XME camera. Exhausting sometimes...
Two articles in english are ingoing. One for Sky and telescope, relating this fantastic adventure, and one on a referee journal concerning the scientific facts. One other in a french journal
The blog of the mission http://deltascorpii2011teideiac80.blogspot.com/
I want to thanks all the peoples who suppport us, technicals, ingeniors, operators and director of the observatory. Specials thanks to Johan Knappen, from IAC, who gave us ten night and José Ribeiro who has perfectly planned the mission.
Members were :
Primary Investigator, Anatoly Miroshnichenko http://www.uncg.edu/~a_mirosh/
The boss, José Ribeiro http://astrosurf.com/joseribeiro/Eindex.htm
The pilot and photograph Alberto Fernando
The liberty statue, me
The story is not finished...
end of 2010, early 2011 behavior of the H-alpha line of epsilon Aurigae
In 2010, November the red wing of the HII shell around the supergiant F star has reappeared, uncovered by the secondary object. This return make the inside bottom Ha bump disappeared and some unexpected bumps appeared in the sodium doublet in December, January and February. The photometric data shows a decrease of the luminosity in January and February 2011, as the red wing get stronger and stronger. Now Eps Aur is at the lesser magnitude ever observed during this eclipse. That was unexpected.
Have look to the newsletter #21 of the campaign, by J.Hopkins http://www.hposoft.com/EAur09/NL09/NL21.pdf
A possible veiling effect observed in my data series on the red part of the continuum ? At the same moment the continuum on the red part of Ha get noisy. Much more noisy than before during early egress phase. A veil effect by an unexpected extended dust shell could explain the behavior of the photometric data as well the behavior of the Na doublet. A possible flow of matter may be in line of sight. Another eps Aur surprise ?
Animation from 2010, Nov to 2011, mid Feb 
Animation of my overall 2009-2011 observation. eps Aur is alive !
Equivalent width curve, 6550-6570 A, nearly symmetric, with a out of eclipse noticeable period of 96d
Download all my 2009-2011 spectra of eps aur originaux_epsaur_T
Z cma outburst
Hello,
recently the pre main double star Z cma showed a stong photometric outburst according to the AAVSO special notice #232 http://www.aavso.org/aavso-special-notice-232
A new amateur international spectroscopic campaign has been designed to gather all amateur spectra observations concerning this outburst both in high and low resolution, visual and IR.
http://www.astrosurf.com/aras/surveys/prestars/zcma/
Coordinates (2000.0) : R.A. = 07h03m43.2s, Decl. = -11°33'06"
This star has a very spectacular spectra, showing spectral features of all types, emission, absorption, P_cyg, Doppler shift, broaden, jet under a nebular environment. Image capture during acquisition, 2D and 1D spectra in high resolution Ha
It would be an easy amateur target during winter, even at mV 8. If you want to join the spectroscopic campaign please send spectra to me or on the spectro-L list, under Fit format with a graphic JPG, PNG.
It's a clear spectacular object, so go ahead !
Campaign update:
Message on spectro-L Yahoogroup
Prendre des néons à distance avec un LhiresIII
J'ai expérimenté hier soir par ciel brumeux un système simple pour commander la prise des néons de calibration sans quitter le salon. Il s'agit d'utiliser une simple prise de courant télécommandée, servant par exemple à allumer une lampe de chevet à distance.
Mon observatoire se trouve à une quinzaine de mètres de la maison et la portée du signal radio s'est trouvée tout juste suffisante pour pouvoir allumer le transformateur qui alimente le néon interne du LhiresIII.
Sans placer la lampe devant la fente, comme il faudrait, le temps de pose de prise des images de calibration doit être portée à 1s au lieu de 0,3s. 
Aprés les correction géométriques classiques on obtient une image du spectre du néon totalement exploitable pour une calibration précise du spectre objet
Voici le spectre de epsilon aurigae, qui a servit pour la démonstration, calibré avec une précision sur les telluriques de 0.03A RMS, voir la superposition du spectre avec celui d'un spectre synthétique H2O.
Une précaution toutefois, ne pas prendre les néons avec l'étoile sur la fente sinon on obtient ça! 
On pourrait certainement interfacer logiciellement la prise des néons avec une mutiprise commandée par USB. Ça sera un efficace développement futur à ma paresse.
Ainsi, avec la monture goto et les néons télé-commandables à souhait et le génial loigiciel de prise de controle d'un PC à distance http://www.tightvnc.com/, il ne sera plus nécessaire de sortir dans le froids humides de nuits d'hiver.