COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
       INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                   NUMBER 719


                                     Konkoly Observatory
                                     Budapest
                                     1972 September 28

         NEW LIGHT ELEMENTS FOR V CRATERIS


    The eclipsing binary V Crt (BD-15d 3260) has been observed 
by us on four nights in March-April 1972 through B and V
filters with a photoelectric photometer attached to the 1.2
meter reflecting telescope of the Rangapur Observatory. From
observations made on the night of March 20, 1972, we have 
determined the time of primary minimum using the method of Kwee
and van Woerden (1956). The heliocentric time of primary minimum 
was found to be JD hel 2441397.3323.
    In the third edition of the General Catalogue of Variable
Stars light elements for this system are given as

    JD hel.min. I = 2427460.525 + 0.702034d E.

These elements seem to have been adopted from the work of 
Tsesevich (1954). However, on going through this paper we noticed
that in the normal light curve obtained by using the elements
given above the primary eclipse occured at phase 0.98p, so that
the time of primary minimum should be corrected to JD hel.
2427460.511.
   The differences between the observed and computed times
of minima using the above elements are given in Table I as
(O-C)_1. The systematic nature of the residuals indicates an
error in the period given above. Therefore, we propose the 
following new light elements for V Crt:

   JD hel.min. I = 2441397.3323 + 0.7020361d E.

The residuals obtained with the new light elements are given
in Table I as (O-C)_2.
               

                 Table I
---------------------------------------------- 
JDhel.min.I   (O-C)_1 (O-C)_2    Reference
----------------------------------------------
2427460.511   -0.014  +0.000  Tsesevich (1954)
2427478.763   -0.015  -0.001  Gaposhkin (1953)
2432299.653   +0.008  +0.007  Solovyev  (1958)
2441397.3323  +0.028  +0.000
----------------------------------------------


   Our observations indicate that the primary eclipse is
partial. The depth of the primary minimum was found to be
0.63m and 0.60m in B and V, respectively, and not 1.0m as
given in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars. Duration
of the primary minimum is nearly 0.20d, and the variation of
light outside the eclipses is approximately 0.1m.



Department of Astronomy
 Osmania University           M. PARTHASARATHY
  Hyderabad, India.           N.B. SANWAL




References:

Gaposhkin, S.: 1953, Ann.Harvard Coll.Obs. 113, 69. [BIBCODE 1953AnHar.113...67G ]
Kwee, K.K., and van Woerden, H.: 1956, B.A.N. 12, 327. [BIBCODE 1956BAN....12..327K ]
Solovyev, A.V.: 1958, Variable Stars, 12, 262. [BIBCODE 1958PZ.....12..262S ]
Tsesevich, V.P.: 1954, Odessa Izvestia, 4, 236.