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P.A. Heckert, J.I. Ordway (Western Carolina U)
We present new BVRI light curves of the short-period eclipsing RS CVn system, UV Piscium. We have complete sets of light curves for 1995, 1996, 1998, and 1999 and partial very incomplete light curves for 2002. We model the data to compute the spot longitudes, latitudes, and radii for each complete set of light curves. Superimposing the V light curves on a single plot, we note that the phases out of primary eclipse are significantly (~0.1 mag) fainter during 1999 than the other years. The magnitudes during primary eclipse vary only slightly. This secular luminosity decrease of the primary star is not easily explained in the context of the starspot model. Other workers have observed similar secular luminosity variations for UV Piscium, but they are of smaller magnitude. Comparisons with previous work are hampered by the fact the most of the data are in various instrumental systems. We compare this effect in UV Piscium to similar but opposite effects observed in WY Cancri, which was about 0.08 to 0.10 magnitudes brighter than other years in both 1988 and 1997. We plan to continue observing UV Piscium to more fully understand this behavior.
We acknowledge generous amounts of observing time at Mt Laguna Observatory. We also acknowledge support from the AAS small grants program and from Western Carolina University.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.