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The paper describes a target setting of searching for apsidal motion in 21 eclipsing binaries. We estimate the capability of its determination for the systems of interest in the coming years, as well as present results of observations in 2009–2018, in which the minima of the light curves of these stars have been obtained. The accuracy of orbital period determination of the studied binaries is 10–100 times greater in comparison with the previously available data. For two systems, photometric elements are determined. As a by-product of the study, a close eclipsing binary of the W UMa type was discovered.

We report the results of long-term time series photometry on RX J2133.7+5107, an intermediate polar distinguished by its long orbital period (7.14 h) and rapid rotation (571 s) of its white dwarf. The light curves show the presence of a conspicuous modulation with a 6.72-h period, 6.1 ± 0.1 per cent shorter than the orbital period, which we interpret as a (negative) superhump associated with the nodal precession of the accretion disc. This detection may prove a challenge to the idea that superhumps are limited to binaries of short orbital period. Our rotational timings over the 7 yr spanned by our observations show spin-up at a rate of 3.41(2) ms yr-1 or, equivalently, on a time-scale |P/P?|=0.17×106 yr. The latter is sensibly shorter than the time-scale of spin period variations reported for other intermediate polars, possibly due to a greater accretion rate., We thank the National Science Foundation for support of this research (AST-1211129 and AST-1615456), and NASA through HST-G0-13630. EdM acknowledges financial support from the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) under the Mobility Program Salvador de Madariaga (PRX15/00521).

The eclipsing variable GSC 4513 2537= V1176 Cas is a recently discovered binary system. We have made high precision CCD observations of it during 2009-2010 and obtained light curves. The photometric parameters and orbital elements, periods of the primary and secondary minima, and U, B, and V magnitudes have also been obtained. The rate of rotation of the apsidal line is estimated to be $ {{\dot{\upomega}}_{obs }} $ = 0.08 ± 0.04 / year. This is 5 times the theoretically predicted $ {{\dot{\upomega}}_{obs }} $ = 0.016 ± 0.005 /year. The bulk (80%) of the theoretical rate of rotation of the orbit is in the relativistic component. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the observed rate of orbital rotation of the orbit is low, so getting a more reliable result will require repeating this study in a few years.

Several SU UMa-type dwarf novae, in particular, WZ Sge-type stars tend to exhibit rebrightenings after superoutbursts. The rebrightening phenomenon is problematic for the disk instability theory of dwarf novae since it requires a large amount of remnant matter in the disk even after superoutbursts. Here, we report our optical and infrared observations during the first-ever outburst of a new dwarf nova, SDSS J102146.44+234926.3. During the outburst, we detected superhumps with a period of 0.056281 +/- 0.000015 d, which is typical for superhump periods in WZ Sge stars. In conjunction with the appearance of a long-lived rebrightening, we conclude that the object is a new member of WZ Sge stars. Our observations, furthermore, revealed infrared behaviors for the first time in the rebrightening phase of WZ Sge stars. We discovered prominent infrared superhumps. We calculate the color temperature of the infrared superhump source to be 4600-6400 K. These temperatures are too low to be explained with a fully-ionized disk appearing during dwarf nova outbursts. We also found a Ks-band excess over the hot disk component. These unprecedented infrared activities provide evidence for the presence of mass reservoir at the outermost part of the accretion disk. We propose that a moderately high mass-accretion rate at this infrared active region leads to the long-lived rebrightening observed in SDSS J102146.44+234926.3., 11 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ

Since 2005, the blazar 3C 454.3 has shown remarkable flaring activity at all frequencies, and during the last four years it has exhibited more than one gamma-ray flare per year, becoming the most active gamma-ray blazar in the sky. We present for the first time the multi-wavelength AGILE, SWIFT, INTEGRAL, and GASP-WEBT data collected in order to explain the extraordinary gamma-ray flare of 3C 454.3 which occurred in November 2010. On 2010 November 20 (MJD 55520), 3C 454.3 reached a peak flux (E>100 MeV) of F_gamma(p) = (6.8+-1.0)E-5 ph/cm2/s on a time scale of about 12 hours, more than a factor of 6 higher than the flux of the brightest steady gamma-ray source, the Vela pulsar, and more than a factor of 3 brighter than its previous super-flare on 2009 December 2-3. The multi-wavelength data make a thorough study of the present event possible: the comparison with the previous outbursts indicates a close similarity to the one that occurred in 2009. By comparing the broadband emission before, during, and after the gamma-ray flare, we find that the radio, optical and X-ray emission varies within a factor 2-3, whereas the gamma-ray flux by a factor of 10. This remarkable behavior is modeled by an external Compton component driven by a substantial local enhancement of soft seed photons., Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. 18 Pages, 4 Figures, 1 Table

Quasar 3C 279 is known to exhibit episodes of optical polarization angle rotation. We present new, well-sampled optical polarization data for 3C 279 and introduce a method to distinguish between random and deterministic electric vector position angle (EVPA) variations. We observe EVPA rotations in both directions with different amplitudes and find that the EVPA variation shows characteristics of both random and deterministic cases. Our analysis indicates that the EVPA variation is likely dominated by a random process in the low brightness state of the jet and by a deterministic process in the flaring state., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables, proceeding to appear on EPJ Web of Conferences "The Innermost Regions of Relativistic Jets and their Magnetic Fields (Granada, Spain,10-14 June 2013)"

We present ground-based observations of the transiting Neptune-mass planet Gl 436b obtained with the 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory and other supporting telescopes. Included in this is an observed transit in early 2005, over two years before the earliest reported transit detection. We have compiled all available transit data to date and perform a uniform modeling using the JKTEBOP code. We do not detect any transit timing variations of amplitude greater than ~1 minute over the ~3.3 year baseline. We do however find possible evidence for a self-consistent trend of increasing orbital inclination, transit width, and transit depth, which supports the supposition that Gl 436b is being perturbed by another planet of < 12 Earth Masses in a non-resonant orbit., 6 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, Accepted to ApJ Letters

After 10 years of quiescence, HV Vir underwent a superoutburst in January 2002. We report time-series observations clearly revealing the period change of ordinary superhumps during the superoutburst. We derived a mean superhump period of 0.058260 d and a positive period derivative of $7 \times 10^{-5}$. These results are in good agreement with the value obtained from the 1992 superoutburst. We also detected early superhumps, which were not clearly recognized in the past outburst, and a possible rebrightening. Both of them are the common characteristics of WZ Sge-type stars., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ

The eclipsing variable stars GSC 44870347 and GSC 4513 2537 are recently discovered binary systems (Otero et al., 2006) with orbital periods 1d.99 and 6d.33 days. We carried out the photometric observations of these eclipsing binaries from 2009-2010 using a CCD-array at the Tien-Shan Observatory in Kazakstan, at the Crimea Station of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute, at the Astrokolkhoz Observatory in New Mexico (AAVSO), while the spectrophotometric observations were obtained at the Starlight Farm Observatory in Barnesville, USA.