Ten years of SS 433 kinematics

Observations of the highly Doppler shifted emission lines in SS 433 have now been obtained over a period of 10 years, and some inferences available from this data base are discussed. The nature of the instability in the 164-day precession clock remains obscure; a conservative conclusion is that the instability amplitude is not increasing. The higher frequency 'nodding' motions of the accretion disk is used to set an upper limit on any change in the orbital period of the binary system to absolute value of P-d at 13 less than 10 to the -6th (2 sigma). This limit, almost a full order of magnitude more stringent than the previously published one, in turn constrains the mass loss rate through the relativistic jets, and the jet kinetic energy. The nature of the substantial residuals remaining in the Doppler shift observations is discussed when the best-fit models for the precission, nodding, and clock noise are removed; no further periodic components are evident.