The Recovery Phase after the 2009.0-event of eta Carinae

Abstract

The 5.5 years periodicity of eta Carinae is manifested in the "events" observed in different wavelength ranges. The last of these "events" occurred as expected in 2009.0. Our ground-based photometric campaign registered this "event" which showed an "eclipse-like" feature. After that, we continued the observations in order to get information about the post-event behaviour. Our monitoring program consists of daily CCD photometry, obtained using the 0.8 m "Virpi S. Niemela" telescope at La Plata Observatory, and a BVRI and H_alpha filter set. The light curves and photometric data collected during the second half of our 2009 observing season are presented in this paper.