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Special Notice #244: Continued close monitoring of T Pyx requested

Continued close monitoring of T Pyx requested

June 30, 2011: Since its outburst on 2011 April 14 (see AAVSO Alert Notice 436), the recurrent nova T Pyx has been very well monitored by visual and instrumental observers who can reach -32o. Thank you! Currently T Pyx is visual/V magnitude ~8.3.

New eJAAVSO: Light Curve of the Eccentric Eclipsing Binary GSC 3152-1202, by R. K. Buchheim

Abstract

A complete light curve of this eccentric (~2.094d) eclipsing binary system has been determined, in B, V, and R bands. The primary and secondary minima are slightly different in depth, and the color index does not change during either primary or secondary eclipse. Newly-determined times of minimum confirm the previously-suspected rapid change in the orbital phase of the secondary minimum, implying significant apsidal motion.

http://www.aavso.org/ejaavso

Minor VSP upgrades

Hi, all. Today we rolled out some relatively minor upgrades to VSP. There is nothing groundbreaking here. It's mostly minor tweaks and bug fixes. But I'm outlining them here for your information:

Additions
 - There is a new "reset all" button that will reset all fields in the user interface to their default values.
 - The variable star designator (cross hairs at the center of the chart) now appears on all charts, regardless of the limiting magnitude.

New Observing Section Created to study Young Stellar Objects (YSOs)

 Michael Poxon has taken it upon himself to head a new AAVSO section on his favorite class of variable star: Pre-Main Sequence Stars (YSO/PMS). The AAVSO has had a long history of working with such objects, especially the "Orion variables" that were monitored by many visual observers for years.