AW Sge
observations during the October-November 2002
outburst
On October 30, 2002,
Mike Simonsen (US) announced the detection of a relatively rare
outburst of AW Sge (vsnet-outburst 4672). This is a little studied CV,
known to be a member of the UGSU-type dwarf novae.
The variable star had its last (super)outburst in
July 2000.
There was a short
break in the cloud cover over Belgium, on October
31, 2002, allowing me to obtain unfiltered CCD time
series photometry of AW Sge, using the 0.35-m f/6.3
telescope (ST-7 CCD). The session lasted for 2.6
hours and resulted in the light curve below. It is
obvious that no superhump signature is present, but
rather large "irregular" variations are
superimposed over the fading trend. It may be that
the object is experiencing the earliest stage of a
superoutburst, before the growth of genuine
superhumps.
Follow-up
observations over the next nights will tell ...