AAVSO Alert Notice 451

PTS

AAVSO Alert Notice 451

Monitoring of the Symbiotic Variable RT Cru Requested January 27, 2012

The symbiotic variable RT Cru has brightened in hard x-rays. Dr.
Jeno Sokoloski, Columbia University, has requested AAVSO assistance in
monitoring RT Cru both now and in the future to see if it is doing anything
unusual in the optical. The Swift/BAT hard X-ray light curve shows RT Cru
has apparently been gradually brightening over the past few years.

Dr. Sokoloski writes: "The hard X-ray emission from RT Cru suggests that the
accreting white dwarf is close to the Chandrasekhar limit (e.g., Luna and
Sokoloski 2007) and that it is therefore a candidate supernova Type-Ia
progenitor.  Also, since it is a massive white dwarf accreting at a
reasonably high rate, it is similar to T CrB - so why isn't it a recurrent
nova??

"Fast photometry (to look for CV-like flickering from the accretion
disk) and optical spectroscopy would also be very interesting and could
potentially help us interpret the current hard X-ray brightening."

Dr. Sokoloski requests time series photometry now for a few days, and then
weekly or monthly observations for the forseeable future.
Visual observations are also welcome. At magnitude B=10.7 and R=11.100 it is
too faint for BVRI photoelectric photometry, but at magnitude J=6.646 and
H=5.583 it may be a suitable target for near-IR photometrists.

Coordinates: R.A. 12 34 53.74 Dec. -64 33 56.0 (2000.0)

Finder charts may be made using VSP (http://www.aavso.org/vsp).

Please report your observations to the AAVSO International Database using
the name "RT CRU".

This AAVSO Alert Notice was compiled by Elizabeth O. Waagen.