Luminous Blue Variable

Special Notice #205: Rapid fading in the luminous blue variable S Doradus

April 15, 2010: Noel D. Richardson and Douglas R. Gies (Georgia State University) announced on 2010 April 14 (Astronomer's Telegram #2560) that S Doradus is currently fading in optical brightness, while its hydrogen Balmer line (H-alpha) brightness is increasing. The V-band magnitude of S Dor (as measured by ASAS-3; Pojmanski, G., 2002, AcA 52, 397) has been declining for more than a thousand days. The star began a more rapid decline earlier this year, and is now fainter than V=9.5.

Alert Notice 486: Spectroscopy and photometry campaign on three bright Wolf Rayet stars

June 26, 2013: Dr. Noel Richardson (Université de Montréal) is helping coordinate a very large ProAm campaign (over 20 professional and amateur astronomers) this summer on three bright Wolf Rayet stars in Cygnus. Dr. Richardson, fellow co-PIs Drs. Tony Moffat (Université de Montréal), Nicole St.-Louis (Université de Montréal), and Thomas Eversberg (Schnoerringen Telescope Science Institute, Waldbroel, Germany), and their colleagues invite AAVSO spectroscopists and photometrists to participate in this campaign.

Alert Notice 453: Monitoring of S Dor requested for multiwavelength campaign

February 23, 2012:  Dr. Noel Richardson, Georgia State University, has requested monitoring of the luminous blue variable (LBV) prototype S Doradus as part of a multiwavelength campaign he is coordinating to study the photosphere of this star. At present the observations planned include:

1. UV Spectroscopy from HST
2. Optical spectroscopy from CTIO and an amateur in Australia
3. Near-IR Spectroscopy from SOAR (pending approval)
4. Mid-IR photometry from Gemini (pending approval)