Radial velocities of 2 VY Sculptoris-type CV stars

Photometric and spectroscopic observations from MDM Observatory show both systems to be nova-like variables that exhibit dips of 4-5 mag from their mean brightnesses, establishing them as members of the VY Scl subclass.

From high-state emission-line radial velocities, we determine orbital periods of 0.151424(3) days (3.63 hr) for V704 And and 0.130400(1) days (3.13 hr) for RX J2338+431. In V704 And, we find that the H{alpha} emission-line measures cluster into distinct regions on a plot of equivalent width versus full width at half-maximum, which evidently correspond to high, intermediate, and low photometric states. This allows us to assign spectra to photometric states when contemporaneous photometry is not available, an apparently novel method that may be useful in studies of other novalikes.