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J. Moustakas (UC Berkeley), E.M. Schlegel (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
We present a spectrophotometric analysis of the eclipsing nova-like variable VZ Sculptoris. The data include 132 time-resolved spectra obtained with the 4-meter CTIO telescope in addition to 277 time-resolved spectra obtained with the KPNO 2.1-meter telescope. Although Doppler tomography, light and radial velocity curves of the prominent HI, HeI and HeII \lambda4686 emission lines suggest the existence of an accretion disc, a program to model the emission-line profiles to better determine the geometry of the system is currently underway. We discuss the possibility that VZ Sculptoris belongs to a currently unexplained subclass of nova-like objects called the SW Sex stars.
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ioannis@ugastro.berkeley.edu