V803 Cen: Striking oscillations

The helium dwarf nova V803 Cen experienced a very bright outburst reached 12.5mag as reported by R. Stubbings on 1999 December 31. A similar brightness peak was observed around 1999 Sep. 11-13 (vsnet-alert 3915).

V803 Cen again showed a very bright outburst (12.2mag) on March 17 as reported by A. Pearce (vsnet-alert 4423). It faded on March 23 as reported by P. Nelson <13.0mag (vsnet-alert 4448). On March 25, it showed re-brightening to 13.0mag as reported by A. Pearce (vsnet-alert 4466). And then strong fluctuations began. Observations reported in the end of March indicates large-amplitude, short-term variability (vsnet-alert 4500).

V803 Cen occurred a bright outburst (13.4 mag) on 1 June (vsnet-campaign 158). The further brightening (12.6 mag) was confirmed through the observation by A. Pearce on 2 June, which indicated the outburst is a superoutburst (vsnet-campaign 163). William S. G. Walker successfully detected the superhumps during this superoutburst (vsnet-campaign 176). In vsnet-campaign 201, he posted light curves from Farm Cove (Jennie McCormick and Fred Velthuis) and Wharemaru (Stan Walker) which illustrate the strongly periodic 27 minute signal. It has suddenly faded from 13.0mag on June 7 to 14.1mag on June 8 (vsnet-campaign 192), and then, as reported by R. Stubbings and A. Pearce, it has rebrightened up to 13.4mag on June 11 (vsnet-campaign 198). According to the Walker's report, it seems that the star may have recovered to the bright level where it cycles between 13.4 and 14.8 over a period of 22 to 24 hours. In 1999 and 2000 there were indications that this cycling period may have become even shorter (vsnet-campaign 201). Following the fading from the outburst, strong fluctuations around 14 - 13 mag and some minor outbursts followed by striking oscillations have been observed since mid-June. The object has been very active at bright state (vsnet-campaign 208, 218, 224, 228, 236, 235, 245, 236, 262, 269, 271, 285, 299, 322, vsnet-campaign-dn 28, 58, 59, 64, 68, 76, 82, 100, 104, 110, 114, 119, 151, 253, 254, 267, 278, 289, 313, These features resemble that observed in early April, 2000 (vsnet-campaign 251).

S. Walker performed CCD photometry on August 1 and 2, and detected possible superhumps with their amplitude of 0.1mag (vsnet-campaign-dn 84, vsnet-campaign 407). A rapid fading from the bright outburst was reported on August 5 ( <14.8 by R. Stubbings) (vsnet-campaign-dn 96). R. Stubbings reported it was brightening again on December 5 (vsnet-campaign-dn 289).

Light Curve and General Information of This Object