The charts and sequences team has been busy over the last several months preparing new sequences for newly discovered objects and revised sequences intended to improve existing sequences. If you observe any of these objects please update your charts and/or sequences.
The theme of this year’s spring meeting is Pulsating Stars. The meeting will begin on Thursday evening at 6pm CDT with a keynote address by Dr. Horace Smith, Professor Emeritus of Michigan State University and a noted expert on RR Lyrae stars. Dr.
June 3, 2011: As an update to AAVSO Special Notice #241 (http://www.aavso.org/aavso-special-notice-241), the supernova in M51 has been designated SN 2011dh. Discovery, classification, and observation information have been published in IAU CBET 2736 (Daniel W. E. Green, ed.).
Coordinates: 13:30:05.08 +47:10:11.2 (J2000.0)
Coordinates source is Silverman et al., ATEL 3398
Observations should be submitted to the AAVSO International Database using the name SN 2011dh.
Independent discovery by:
- Minoru Yamamoto (Okazaki, Aichi-ken, Japan, reported via H. Yamaoka, Kyushu University)
- Yuji Nakamura (Kameyama, Mie, Japan, reported via Yamaoka)
Discovery magnitude:
- Yamamoto: ~10.6 on four 15-second frames and using a Canon 5DMRK2 camera + 135-mm lens
- Nakamura: ~10.6 on a 30-second CCD image and using a 135-mm lens
March 10, 2016: Further to AAVSO Alert Notice 537, the anticipated secondary eclipse of b Per is underway, according to information from campaign astronomer Dr. Donald F. Collins. Dr. Collins writes:
March 1, 2016: Ms. Deanne Coppejans (PhD candidate, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) and University of Cape Town) and colleagues have requested AAVSO observer assistance in monitoring several northern dwarf novae in support of their campaign to observe them with the Very Large Array (VLA) in their ongoing radio jet research. Their research on radio jets in dwarf novae has been discussed in AAVSO Alert Notice 505.
February 26, 2016: Dr. Jeno Sokoloski (Columbia University) and Mx. Adrian Lucy (graduate student, Columbia University) have requested AAVSO observations of the jet-driving symbiotic star V694 Mon (MWC 560), which is in outburst, in support of upcoming Chandra observations to investigate the state of the inner accretion disk during this outburst.
The Chandra observations are scheduled (preliminary schedule) for 2016 March 8 (7:17-14:13 UTC) and March 9 (2:20-9:17 UTC).
February 26, 2016: Dr. Donald F. Collins (AAVSO member, Swannanoa, NC), Dr. Robert Zavala (US Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station), and Jason Sanborn (Lowell Observatory) request high time-resolution observations of the bright eclipsing star b Persei (not beta) during an expected secondary eclipse of the third star of the system as it is expected to pass behind the close orbiting stars of the system in the two weeks centered on March 7, 2016. Dr. Collins provides the information below.
