COMMISSIONS 27 AND 42 OF THE IAU
              INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                            Number 4018

                                                Konkoly Observatory
                                                Budapest
                                                26 April 1994

                                                HU ISSN 0374 - 0676



              TIMES OF MINIMUM OF ECLIPSING BINARIES
                      IN AND NEAR CENTAURUS


 	 In 1982 and again in 1989 photometric light curves were obtained at Mt. John University
Observatory in New Zealand for a close group of eclipsing binaries in and near the constellation 
of Centaurus. All data were obtained with the single channel photoelectric photometer
on the 0.6 meter photoelectric telescope using the observatory's uvby filter set. During the
course of these observations many primary and secondary minima were observed. The times
of minimum determined from the observations are presented in Table I.

		Table I. Determinations of Times of Minimum

STAR     	   HJD 2440000+   S.E.       MINIMUM

MP CEN              5049.090 	 0.006  	 II
                    5064.052 	 0.003  	 II
                    5093.989 	 0.007  	 II
                    7609.993 	 0.001  	 I
                    7624.955 	 0.001  	 I
                    7627.948 	 0.001  	 I
MR CEN              7610.974 	 0.003  	 I
VZ CEN              7628.138 	 0.005  	 I
BF CEN              5064.953 	 0.008  	 II
                    5087.100 	 0.009  	 II
                    7628.128 	 0.005  	 II
                    7665.064 	 0.002  	 II
LZ CEN              5064.007 	 0.007  	 I
                    5086.072 	 0.012  	 I
                    5088.816 	 0.010  	 I
                    5092.965 	 0.006  	 II
                    7612.142 	 0.003  	 I
LT CEN              5068.929 	 0.001  	 I
                    5085.142 	 0.004  	 I
                    5094.122 	 0.001  	 II
                    7611.040 	 0.001  	 II
                    7615.110 	 0.001  	 I
                    7628.121 	 0.001  	 I
MN CEN              5049.104 	 0.009  	 II
                    5084.004 	 0.004  	 II
                    7611.897 	 0.003  	 I
AE CRU              5049.043 	 0.001  	 I


  For each minimum in Table I the Heliocentric Julian Date listed is the average time of
minimum for all four filters. The accompanying standard errors were determined using the
time residuals of each filter from this average.
 	 In planning the observing program for these stars the light elements from the Finding
List of Wood et al. (1980) were used. The times of minimum in Table I are generally not
close to the times predicted from these light elements.	 In most cases the epochs rather than
the periods seemed to be at fault, since the O-C values for most of the stars were about the
same in 1982 and 1989. However, we note that, in particular, the period for LT Cen appears
to be longer than that given in the Finding List.


                      George W. WOLF +
                      Peter W. RATZLAFF
                      Department of Physics and Astronomy
                      Southwest Missouri State University
                      Springfield, MO 65804 U.S.A.



Reference:

Wood, F.B., Oliver, J.P., Florkowski, D.R. and Koch, R.H., 1980, A Finding List for
   Observers of Interacting Binary Stars





+ Guest Observer, Mt. John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand