The nature of V359 Centauri revealed: New long-period SU UMa-type dwarf nova

¹ Department of Astronomy, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
² 19 Greenland Drive, Drouin 3818, Victoria, Australia
³ RMB 2493, Ellinbank 3820, Australia
⁴ Southern Stars Observatory, PO Box 60972, 98702 FAAA TAHITI, French Polynesia
⁵ Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
⁶ Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
⁸ Inst. of Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK
⁹ Astronomical Data Analysis Center, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
¹¹ Bronberg Observatory, PO Box 11426, Tiegerpoort 0056, South Africa
¹² Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 810-8560, Japan

Corresponding author: T. Kato, tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Received: 8 July 2002
Accepted: 28 August 2002

Abstract

We detected four outbursts of V359 Cen (possible nova discovered in 1939) between 1999 and 2002. Time-resolved CCD photometry during two outbursts (1999 and 2002) revealed that V359 Cen is actually a long-period SU UMa-type dwarf nova with a mean superhump period of 0.08092(1) d. We identified its supercycle length as 307–397 d. This secure identification of the superhump period precludes the previously supposed possibility that V359 Cen could be related to a WZ Sge-type system with a long persistence of late superhumps. The outburst characteristics of V359 Cen are, however, rather unusual in its low occurrence of normal outbursts.