2. The Observation

Cen X-3 was observed outside of eclipse with ASCA from 1995 February 1 10:57 to 1995 February 2 20:47 UT. The observation covered orbital phases 0.1-0.8 where phase 0 refers to mid-eclipse. The gradual X-ray eclipse lasts from orbital phase $\sim$ 0.8 to $\sim$ 0.2. The SIS was operated in fast mode except for some short intervals in bright mode. These bright mode observations were necessary to determine the position of the source on the SIS CCDs since fast mode sacrifices spatial information in favor of better time resolution.