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October 5, 2010: As originally announced in AAVSO Alert Notice 423, Dr. Paula Szkody (U. Washington) has requested the help of AAVSO observers in monitoring the WZ Sge-type cataclysmic variable V455 And in support of Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet spectroscopic observations.
October 1, 2010: Dr. Colin Aspin (U. Hawai'i) has requested the help of AAVSO observers in performing long-term photometric monitoring of the two new young stellar objects (YSOs) in Cygnus, HBC 722 and VSX J205126.1+440523 (see AAVSO Special Notice #216).
RR Lyrae, 1 degree field, DSS I survey plate
(copyright 1993-1995 CalTech/STScI)
Sept. 24 Update: The goal has been met! Click here for Guustaaf's update. Thanks to everyone who contributed!
September 21, 2010: As announced by Hiroyuki Maehara in vsnet-outburst 11547, the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova SDSS J080434.20+510349.2 is in outburst, and is also showing evidence of superhumps (vsnet-outburst 11551). Both visual and CCD observations -- including CCD time-series observations -- of this outburst are encouraged. The most recently posted visual observation by Patrick Schmeer (vsnet-outburst 11556) indicates the star is currently around m(vis) = 12.7.
September 14, 2010: V2672 Oph (Nova Oph 2009) was discovered by Koichi Itagaki in outburst on August 16, 2009 (see AAVSO Alert Notice 402 and IAUC 9064). It peaked at about magnitude 12, and rapidly faded. Low- and medium-resolution spectroscopy showed broad, prominent H_alpha emission with FWHM 11500 km/s on top of a featureless, but very red, continuum.
Longtime AAVSO Member and past AAVSO Council Member, Doug Welch, has been awarded the prestigious McNeil Medal by the Royal Society of Canada. For more information see the announcement on McMaster University's web site.
September 2, 2010: We have been notified by Dan Green, Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, that Berto Monard (MLF), Pretoria, South Africa, has discovered a bright supernova (discovered at 15.0, brightened to 14.7 in 24 hours) in NGC 3001. Here are details quoted from CBET 2434 (Green, ed.):
August 30, 2010: Dr. Paula Szkody (U. Washington) has requested the help of AAVSO observers in monitoring the WZ Sge-type cataclysmic variable V455 And in support of Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet spectroscopic observations scheduled for 6:55-15:20 2010 September 11 UT (the night of Friday, September 10/11) (JD 2455450.78819 - 2455451.13889). Observations are requested beginning immediately and continuing through September 20. This monitoring is crucial to these observations.
August 27, 2010: Two new eruptive, pre-main sequence stars of FU Orionis type have recently been discovered in Cygnus. Observations of both are encouraged to better characterize the behaviors of these two objects.
