We present the third data release of the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) which is the first milestone of the RAVE project, releasing the full pilot survey. The catalog contains 83,072 radial velocity measurements for 77,461 stars in the southern ce
lestial hemisphere, as well as stellar parameters for 39,833 stars. This paper describes the content of the new release, the new processing pipeline, as well as an updated calibration for the metallicity based upon the observation of additional standard stars. Spectra will be made available in a future release. The data release can be accessed via the RAVE webpage: http://www.rave-survey.org.
AIMS: Nova Cyg 2006 has been intensively observed throughout its full outburst. We investigate the energetics and evolution of the central source and of the expanding ejecta, their chemical abundances and ionization structure, and the formation of du
st. METHOD: We recorded low, medium, and/or high-resolution spectra (calibrated into accurate absolute fluxes) on 39 nights, along with 2353 photometric UBVRcIc measures on 313 nights, and complemented them with IR data from the literature. RESULTS: The nova displayed initially the normal photometric and spectroscopic evolution of a fast nova of the FeII-type. Pre-maximum, principal, diffuse-enhanced, and Orion absorption systems developed in a normal way. After the initial outburst, the nova progressively slowed its fading pace until the decline reversed and a second maximum was reached (eight months later), accompanied by large spectroscopic changes. Following the rapid decline from second maximum, the nova finally entered the nebular phase and formed optically thin dust. We computed the amount of formed dust and performed a photo-ionization analysis of the emission-line spectrum during the nebular phase, which showed a strong enrichment of the ejecta in nitrogen and oxygen, and none in neon, in agreement with theoretical predictions for the estimated 1.0 Msun white dwarf in Nova Cyg 2006. The similarities with the poorly investigated V1493 Nova Aql 1999a are discussed.
The orbit and fundamental physical parameters of the double-lined eclipsing binary V505 Per are derived by means of Echelle high resolution, high S/N spectroscopy and B, V photometry. Effective temperatures, gravities, rotational velocities and metal
licities are obtained from atmospheric chi^2 analysis. An E(B-V)<=0.01 mag reddening is derived from interstellar NaI and KI lines. The distance to the system computed from orbital parameters (60.6 +/- 1 pc) is identical to the newly re-reduced Hipparcos parallax (61.5 +/- 1.9 pc). The masses of the two components (M(1) = 1.2693 +/- 0.0011 and M(2) = 1.2514 +/- 0.0012 Msun) place them in the transition region between convective and radiative stellar cores of the HR diagram, with the more massive of the two showing already the effect of evolution within the Main Sequence band (T(1) = 6512 +/- 21 K, T(2) = 6462 +/- 12 K, R(1) = 1.287 +/- 0.014, R(2) = 1.266 +/- 0.013 Rsun). This makes this system of particular relevance to theoretical stellar models, as a test on the overshooting. We compare the firm observational results for V505 Per component stars with the predictions of various libraries of theoretical stellar models (BaSTI, Padova, Granada, Yonsei-Yale, Victoria-Regina) as well as BaSTI models computed specifically for the masses and chemical abundances of V505 Per. We found that the overshooting at the masses of V505 Per component stars is already pretty low, but not null, and described by efficiencies lambda(OV)=0.093 and 0.087 for the 1.27 and 1.25 Msun components, respectively. According to the computed BaSTI models, the age of the system is about 0.9 Gyr and the element diffusion during this time has reduced the surface metallicity from the initial [M/H]=-0.03 to the current [M/H]=-0.13, in excellent agreement with observed [M/H]=-0.12 +/- 0.03.
