Discovery
Cataclysmic variables are among the classes of astronomical objects most commonly found by amateurs, since a cataclysmic variable in outburst is bright enough to be detectable with very modest instruments, and the only celestial objects easily confused with them are bright asteroids whose movement from night to night is clear.
Around six novae are discovered each year, whilst models based on observations in other galaxies suggest that the rate of occurrence ought to be between 20 and 50; this discrepancy is due partly to obscuration by interstellar dust, and partly to a lack of observers in the southern hemisphere and to the difficulties of observing while the Sun is up and at Full Moon.
Verifying that an object is a cataclysmic variable is also fairly straightforward: they are usually quite blue objects, they exhibit rapid and strong variability, and they tend to have peculiar emission lines. They emit in the ultraviolet and X-ray ranges; they are expected also to emit gamma rays, from annihilation of positrons from proton-rich nuclei produced in the fusion explosion, but this has not yet been detected
Read more about this topic: Cataclysmic Variable Star
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—George Berkeley (1685–1753)
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