One of the best known dwarf novae is
SS Cygni, which spends most of its time in quiescence at 12th magnitude, but every couple of months suddenly brightens to 8th magnitude for a few days before gradually fading again.
Dispute continues over
SS Cygni. New radio observations by James Miller-Jones (Curtin University, Australia) and his colleagues feed the debate over the true distance to one of the most-watched variable stars.
The dwarf nova
SS Cygni was reported rising in such an outburst at V magnitude 9.54 on 2013 Sept 22.1.
Kraft reported that at least four stars of this type were short-period spectroscopic binaries, in addition to
SS Cygni, which was already known to be one.
(43) Even after his retirement, Brook remained active in the Section and produced many variable star charts (as well as continuing the series of reports on SS Cygni mentioned previously).
In 1911 Brook wrote: 'SS Cygni is a fascinating and mysterious star.
The prototype of the class of stars that bears its name, the cataclysmic variable
SS Cygni has been observed essentially nonstop since its discovery in 1896.
The AAVSO's worldwide network of observers would monitor the behavior of these stars and report immediately when one of them, such as
SS Cygni or U Geminorum, would go into outburst.
Of course, I started with well-known stars like R Coronae Borealis and
SS Cygni."
Mauche presented EUVE data on
SS Cygni, the brightest dwarf nova in the northern sky.
Thankfully, in addition to serving as the embodiment of detente, the astronauts captured two white-dwarf stars, the dwarf nova
SS Cygni, a flare on Proxima Centauri, and high-energy emission from the interstellar medium (ISM) itself.
To this day Cragg gets annoyed when amateurs insist on using photometers without understanding whether they really need them: "It doesn't require an accuracy of a thousandth of a magnitude to tell whether
SS Cygni is at maximum or at minimum," he says.