The Catalina Real Time Survey (CRTS) has found over 500 cataclysmic variable
(CV) candidates, most of which were previously unknown. We report here on
followup spectroscopy of 36 of the brighter objects. Nearly all the spectra are
typical of CVs at minimum light. One object appears to be a flare star, while
another has a spectrum consistent with a CV but lies, intriguingly, at the
center of a small nebulosity. We measured orbital periods for eight of the CVs,
and estimated distances for two based on the spectra of their secondary stars.
In addition to the spectra, we obtained direct imaging for an overlapping
sample of 37 objects, for which we give magnitudes and colors. Most of our new
orbital periods are shortward of the so-called period gap from roughly 2 to 3
hours. By considering the cross-identifications between the Catalina objects
and other catalogs such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we argue that a large
number of cataclysmic variables remain uncatalogued. By comparing the CRTS
sample to lists of previously-known CVs that CRTS does not recover, we find
that the CRTS is biased toward large outburst amplitudes (and hence shorter
orbital periods). We speculate that this is a consequence of the survey
cadence.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. 35 pages,
including 7 figure
