VV Cephei
VV Cephei is a highly interesting binary system with a supergiant M star that has left the main sequence and a late B star, with an accretion disk and a bow shock in the front.
Observation
The system has been observed by professional astronomers for over 100 years. However, many of the system parameters are still very imprecisely determined.
The amateur astronomer Ernst Pollmann has been studying this system for over 40 years and has led many observation campaigns.
During the eclipse between 2017 and 2019, he discovered a previously undetected period of 43 days.
Since autumn 2024, a new observation campaign has been running, which is being conducted by Manfred Schwarz together with Ernst Pollmann and David Boyd.
The observational density of this campaign is higher than in any previous project and allows for extremely high-resolution analysis of the 43-day period.
Current activities