AAVSO Special Notice

Special Notice #401: AM Her NuSTAR observations April 5

April 3, 2015: Further to AAVSO Alert Notice 517 (www.aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-517), Dr. Axel Schwope (Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, Germany) informs us that the NuSTAR X-ray observations of AM Her will take place on

2015 April 5  15:35 UTC - April 6 19:15 UTC

These NuSTAR observations overlap with the XMM-Newton observations scheduled for April 6.

Filtered photometry with standard filter (BVRI) is requested using the cadence given in Alert Notice 517.  

Special Notice #397: Bright Transient in Sco (PNV J17032620-3504140) [V1535 Sco]

February 11, 2015: Patrick Schmeer (SPK, Bischmisheim, Germany) reports the announcement on the CBAT Transient Object Confirmation Page (TOCP) of the discovery of a bright transient in Sco [V1535 Sco] on 2015 February 11.8367 UT at unfiltered CCD magnitude 8.2 by Tadashi Kojima (Gunma-ken, Japan) using a 150-mm f/2.8 lens + a digital camera. Kojima reports nothing is visible on a frame from the same camera on Feb. 10.827 UT.

Special Notice #395: Alpha Com campaign cancelled

January 16, 2015: We have been informed by PI Dr. Matthew Muterspaugh that his campaign on alpha Com (AAVSO Alert Notice 506) has been cancelled. Position measurements published a century ago contained errors that affected the predictions for the time of eclipse.

More information will be coming from Dr. Muterspaugh and we will disseminate it to everyone in an Alert Notice, but he asked that the observer community be informed now so that observing efforts might not be wasted.

Special Notice #394: Observations of b Persei urgently requested

January 12, 2015: Photometry by P. Benni (AAVSO observer code BPAD; Massachusetts, United States), D. Collins (CDK; North Carolina, United States), F. Campos (CFRA; Catalunya, Spain), and F. Melillo (MFR; New York, United States) suggest that b Persei may have entered eclipse around JD 2457033.6 (2015 January 11.1 UT). Time-series photometric observations of this bright star are urgently requested beginning immediately, and continuing for the next two weeks (through at least 2015 January 26 UT) and possibly beyond.

Special Notice #393: Correction to Special Notice #392 [ASASSN-14lp]

December 11, 2014: In AAVSO Special Notice #392, the name of the supernova discovered in NGC 4666 was given as ASASSN-141p. It should have been ASASSN-14lp. That is to say, the text following the dash should
be "fourteen ell pee" and not "fourteen one pee".

Please create charts and submit observations using the name ASASSN-14lp.

Sincere apologies for the error!


This AAVSO Special Notice was compiled by Elizabeth O. Waagen.