Photometric and spectroscopic results for the contact binary GSC 01387–00475 (ASAS 083128+1953.1) are presented. The existence of this binary with the orbital period of P= 0.2178 d strengthens the argument that the cut-off of the period distribution for contact binaries – until now defined by CC Comae – is very sharp. The only case of a still shorter period is known in a globular cluster where more compact contact configurations are in fact expected. While the spectroscopic orbit of GSC 01387–00475 is well defined, the low orbital inclination of the binary and the presence of a spectroscopic...

Photometric and spectroscopic results for the contact binary GSC 01387–00475 (ASAS 083128+1953.1) are presented. The existence of this binary with the orbital period of P= 0.2178 d strengthens the argument that the cut-off of the period distribution for contact binaries – until now defined by CC Comae – is very sharp. The only case of a still shorter period is known in a globular cluster where more compact contact configurations are in fact expected. While the spectroscopic orbit of GSC 01387–00475 is well defined, the low orbital inclination of the binary and the presence of a spectroscopic companion contributing about 1/3 of the total light conspire to reduce the photometric variability to ≃0.09 mag. The photometric data are currently inadequate to identify the source of the small amplitude (0.02–0.03 mag) intrinsic variability of the system.