Time-series photometric observations were made for the SX Phoenicis star XX Cyg between 2007 and 2011 at the Xinglong Station of National Astronomical Observatories of China. With the light curves derived from the new observations, we do not detect any secondary maximum in the descending portion of the light curves of XX Cyg, as reported in some previous work. Frequency analysis of the light curves confirms a fundamental frequency f 0 = 7.4148 cycles day −1 and up to 19 harmonics, 11 of which are newly detected. However, no secondary mode of pulsation is detected from the light curves. The O−C diagram, produced from 46 newly determined times of maximum light combined with those derived from the literature, reveals a continuous period increase with the rate of (1/P)(dP/dt) = 1.19(13) × 10 −8 yr −1 . Theoretical rates of period change due to the stellar evolution were calculated with a modeling code. The result shows that the observed rate of period change is fully consistent with period change caused by evolutionary behavior predicted by standard theoretical models.

We present 83 new times of maximum light of the SX Phoenicis (SX Phe) star DY Pegasi (DY Peg), based mainly on our new time-series photometric observations from the years 2004–2008. Together with the times of maximum light in the literature, a comprehensive study of the O - C diagram with the data spanning over seven decades leads to a new general ephemeris formula and the determination of a new value of the updated period 0.072926187( ± 3)d. The available times of maximum light can be well modeled with either a triple linear fit, or a fit concerning a continuously increasing period change combined with the light-time effect of an orbital motion. On the contrary, the decreasing period hypothesis suggested by some previous investigators appears to be rejected. The frequency analyses of the data collected in 2004 and 2006 provide the radial pulsation frequency 13.713 c d -1 and its four harmonics. However, although extra powers were present around the reported secondary frequency 17.8 c d -1 in the Fourier transformations of the new data sets, its signal-to-noise ratios were too low to detect this frequency.