March 15, 2018: Evan A. Rich (Ph.D. candidate, University of Oklahoma), and Drs. John Wisniewski (University of Oklahoma), John Tobin (University of Oklahoma), Carol Grady (Goddard Space Flight Center), and Mike Sitko (University of Cincinnati) have requested AAVSO assistance in monitoring the bright (6.9 V) Young Stellar Object NSV 24045 (HD 163296) from now through September 2018.
This Alert Notice has been edited to correct a typographical error, and to correct the statement that the LMC was not well placed for coverage from Chile; AAVSO coverage was requested to broaden the coverage in longitude. Apologies for the errors - EOW
March 14, 2018: Dr. Frederick Walter (Stony Brook University) has requested AAVSO observers, particularly those in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, to monitor the current outburst of the recurrent nova Nova LMC 1996 = OGLE-2018-NOVA-01.
We now have available for download a translation of the AAVSO Solar Observing Guide into Italian - thanks to the excellent volunteer work of Raffaello Braga. This Guide is available free-of-charge and all solar observers are strongly encouraged to read it.
In addition to Italian, the Guide is available in English, French, German, Spanish (and soon Portuguese).
March 5, 2018: Anna Pala (Ph.D. candidate, University of Warwick) has requested AAVSO observers' assistance in monitoring the faint polar cataclysmic variable SDSS J153817.35+512338.0 in support of Hubble Space Telescope observations scheduled for late March-early April 2018.
The HST observing window is 2018 March 28 - April 9. Once the exact time of the HST observations is known, it will be announced on the AAVSO discussion forum thread for this campaign given below.
March 5, 2018: Bob Jacobs (Ph.D. candidate, Radboud University) and Drs. Samaya Nissanke (Radboud University), Jennifer Barnes (Columbia University), and Deanne Coppejans (Northwestern University) have requested AAVSO observers' assistance in monitoring the cataclysmic variables YZ Cnc, SU UMa, and CR Boo. The goal is to build good multicolor light curves of two outbursts of CR Boo and two superoutbursts each of YZ Cnc and SU UMa.
V Boo is an interesting semiregular star that has been observed by AAVSO observers and members since 1904 (a single observation is recorded in 1893). Over 75,000 observations are in the AID from over 2,000 different observers as can be seen in the light curve shown below which displays all observations in the AID. It is one of the Legacy LPV Program stars.
Thanks to the excellent work of our own Sebastián Otero, we now have a Spanish translation of the AAVSO Solar Observing Guide available for download free-of-charge. In addition to Spanish, this Guide is also available in French and German (and soon Italian).
If you would like to translate the AAVSO Solar Observing Guide or any of the other AAVSO observing manuals or guides into your own native language, please contact AAVSO staff member Sara Beck.
