Our seventh paper on CY Aquarii

 tl;dr - In 2008 we started monitoring the star CY Aquarii, a pulsating variable with a remarkably small period of ~90 min and a > 0.7 magnitudes amplitude. Together with Prof. Dr. Christiaan Sterken from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, we recently published data tables and findings from the 2022-2024 observing seasons in our seventh scientific paper. 


It is now common knowledge that among all the stars in the sky the students of the Cusanusgymnasium Bruneck have one undisputed favourite: a tiny little speck of light in the constellation of Aquarius with the unpretentious designation CY. The latest Gaia measurements put it at a distance of 1,367 light years, hence, despite being hotter, bigger and brighter than the Sun, to us it appears ~100 times dimmer than the faintest stars visible to the unaided eye.

Yet, its remarkable property to change its brightness fast (within ~90 min) and considerably (~ doubling its energy output) secured it a special place in our hearts. Indeed, we have told the story of our unwavering affection several times - here, here and here.

Also during the past three seasons, spanning from 2022 to 2024, we had a (digital) eye on our old friend and gathered 48 new times of maximum light. Adding them to the O-C diagram - the holy grail of the physics of variable stars - revealed once more a subtle change in the otherwise so steady heartbeat of our friend. For unknown reasons, it appears to have accumulated a 25-second delay during the last two years.


seasonnightsframesmaxima
200814529128
201012234624
201112346629
2012512967
20137224215
20146381916
201521954431
201610555423
20176291411
20187437917
20194253610
20205281713
20217357613
20226324314
20235342617
20247457017
13461019285

Table 1: Updated log of our observations of the variable star CY Aquarii.


Image 1: Gregor, Alex and Noah (from left), three of the students mentioned in the paper.

Image 2: Our latest paper published in the Journal of Astronomical Data.


Image 3: Star region in Aquarius showing CY Aquarii (arrow).


Video 1:  Revealing the blinking of CY Aquarii! 
Timelapse video (x11,000) built with our own observational data.

You can read more about our work in our latest paper, published together with Prof. Christiaan Sterken in the Journal of Astronomical Data.

We're of course not done yet. The 2025 season ended about a month ago and once again we have several image frames waiting on our hard drives to be compressed into a handful of data points. All the students who co-authored the last paper have either already left our school or will do so in a few months. However, a new promising team - with Jakob, Tommy, Valentina, Moritz, Lukas, Katharina, Lili, and Emma - is already lining up. ✌️🔭

So stay tuned for stellar updates. 💫


Christof Wiedemair

Find us on instagram at @astrocusanus! There's also a Reel on CY Aqr!



Standort: 39031 Bruneck, Autonome Provinz Bozen - Südtirol, Italien

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