V455 And (HS2331+3905) was discovered by Dr. Boris Gaensicke and his team from searches of the Hamburg Quasar Survey.  A low accretion rate showed that this was a possible UGWZ system, although no outbursts had been recorded.  This first outburst was detected on Sep 4.775 UT 2007 when Japanese observer H. Mehara observed this outburst at magnitude 14.59V (on Sep 3.192 the star was at quiescence at 16.24C) Twenty four hours following detection the star was shining at magnitude 8.8, bright enough to be visible in small binoculars.

 

V455 And is a remarkable system.  The Porb is 81 minutes, and the WD is itself a ZZ Ceti star, showing pulsations every 5 minutes.  The rotation of the WD has been measured as 1.12 minutes.  In addition to this, V455 And is also a grazing eclipsing system.

 

The data-points in the light curve above are a combination of visual observations and CCD observations obtained with the Bradford Robotic Telescope!

 

An I-cast film made by Warwick University featuring Prof. Boris Gaensicke and myself speaking on V455 And can be seen here. Filmed in my study and garden just months before V455 And underwent it's Autumn 2007 outburst.

 

Further information see HS2331+3905:  The CV that has it all (Betancor et al)  and the HQS CVS web pages