V1403 Cygni Notes

  Monday June 16 started out with thunderstorms brewing. During the middle of the morning a hefty cell rumbled through Indianapolis with frequent lightning and thunder but only scattered heavy rain. My rain gauge at home had just a Trace in it, and the storm center seemed to mainly pass south of us. By late morning the sky cleared out somewhat and we had partly to mostly skies for the rest of the day. There was a lot of haze that made even the blue sky look whitish. And though there were no more storms or rainfall in Indianapolis for the rest of the day, the humidity was just awful! The dew point reached 70°F by afternoon and stayed there through sunset. It was a real steam bath even though the afternooV high temperature only reached the mid-80's°F.

  I worked from Monday afternoon until a little after 1:00 AM Tuesday morning (June 17), and drove back from Greensburg to Indy by 2:30 AM. It was obvious that this wasn't going to be a night out with the telescope. The sky had scattered high clouds lit up by moonlight from the bright Waning Gibbous Moon (about 4 days past Full Moon) and even the cloud-free parts of the sky were covered in haze. It was difficult to make out 3rd magnitude stars with the naked eye. There was a breeze stirring the leaves, but the air felt thick and muggy. The eclipse of V1068 Cygni was underway. Maybe I'd luck out and have clearer skies on Wednesday morning when it should be near minimum brightness.

  So instead of observing one "neglected" eclipsing binary star, I'm going to go ahead and write about another one I've put on my list to observe, just a handful of degrees away. Here's the information that I've gleaned about it:

  Star Name: V1403 Cygni
  AUID # : 000-BDP-268
  Harvard # : None
  Variability Type : E (In other words, no one seems to know for certain what kind of eclipsing binary star it is. It could be an Algol type EA, a Beta Lyrae type EB, or maybe even a W Ursae Majoris type EW.)
  Magnitude Range: 10.8 - 11.2 P
  Period: Unknown
  Eclipse Duration: Unknown

  There's so little known about this star that it caught my eye. Though the brightness range is small, I should be able to detect a 0.4 magnitude change if I observe it on as many nights as I can. The AAVSO database has no estimates for this star at all. The Lichtenknecker-Database of the BAV lists three estimates for it, credited to Miller and Wachmann. These were measured from photographic plates. Two of the estimates are from July 15, 1950 and one is from November 6, 1950.

  To sum it all up, I may, very soon, be the first person to observe V1403 Cygni in 64 years! More importantly to me, I may be able to help determine its nature with some careful visual estimates. Now all I need are some less murky sky conditions!