October 1, 2015: Dr. George Wallerstein (University of Washington) has requested AAVSO assistance in monitoring 5 variable stars in Cygnus now through December 2015. He is working to complete the radial velocity curves for these stars, and needs optical light curves for correlation with the spectra he will be obtaining.
Discovery magnitude:
- Itagaki: 9.9 U (CCD, using a 180-mm focal length camera lens)
- Takao: 10.5 U
- Nakamura: magnitude not reported (135-mm focal length camera lens)
September 2, 2015: AAVSO observer Adolfo Darriba Martinez y Oscar Ortuño (DAM, Observatorio Las Casqueras, Madrid, Spain) reports that the blazar S5 1803+78 has brightened significantly.
S5 1803+78, which is magnitude 16-17 V at minimum, is currently magnitude 14.237 V (LPAB, P. Lampens-Vancauteren (Ukkel, Belgium).
Previous outbursts are recorded in the AAVSO International Database in November 2007, February 2012, and September 2014.
August 26, 2015: Roque Ruiz-Carmona (Ph.D. candidate, Institute of Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) has requested AAVSO assistance with his campaign to observe (a new set of) 17 cataclysmic variables (CVs) with the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) next week.
August 20, 2015: Prof. Simon Jeffery (Armagh Observatory; Trinity College Dublin) has requested photometric monitoring of the pulsating helium and zirconium-rich hot subdwarf LS IV -14 116 in support of upcoming HST and VLT/UVES spectroscopy. AAVSO observations will supplement photometry due to be obtained with the SAAO 1.0-m and IAC 0.8-m telescopes from 18 August to 2 September 2015. Photometry is requested beginning immediately through 2 September.
August 7, 2015: Further to AAVSO Alert Notice 525, we are entering the critical period of observations for KIC 02856960. Time series observations are urgently requested for this eclipsing binary beginning immediately (2015 August 07, JD 2457242) and continuing for the next five days, through the end of 2015 August 12.
August 4, 2015: Dr. Gregory Sivakoff (U. of Alberta) has requested optical monitoring of the galactic microquasar V4641 Sgr beginning immediately, and continuing for the next 120 days, or until it is no longer observable from your location.
