variable star

anything about variable stars

Variable Star of the Season Archive

The following articles contain useful and interesting information on individual variable stars. Many of the most popular stars in the AAVSO observing program are featured.  From December 1998 until December 2002, the collection of articles comprised the "Variable Star of the Month" series. Since that time, they have all been published as part of the "Variable Star of the Season" (VSOTS) collection.

Special Notice #36: Variable Star in Triangulum Australe (1612-60 VAR TRA 07)

March 8, 2007

A variable star has been discoved in TrA, according to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBET No. 867, Daniel W. E. Green, ed.):

"C. Jacques, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, reports that C. Colesanti, E. Pimentel, T. Napoleao, and he have found a previously unknown variable star on CCD images obtained in the course of the Brazilian Supernovae Survey (cf. IAUC 8482). The new object is located at

R.A. = 16h20m50s.18, Decl. = -60d23'39".5 (equinox 2000.0).

Special Notice #22: Bright New Variable in Cassiopeia

October 31, 2006

Daniel W. E. Green, Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, reports (Central Bureau Electronic Telegram 711) that S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, reports the discovery of a brightening star in Cassiopeia by Akihiko Tago, Ayabe, Tsuyama, Okayama-ken, Japan. Unfiltered CCD observations by Tago include October 25.538 UT, 10.7; 27.409, 10.5; 30.411, 8.8; 31.469, 7.5. Tago used a 70-mm f/3.2 lens and a Canon EOS 20Da digital camera (limiting magnitude 12).

Special Notice #21: Possible New Object In Tau

October 26, 2006

Dan Green has asked for confirmation of a new object reported to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams by astronomers at Crni Vrh Observatory of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Here are details:

position (2000): R.A. 03:29:12.26 Dec. +12:50:17.6 (Taurus)

magnitude: ~R magnitude ~14.9 (unfiltered CCD, approx. R magnitude)

date: Oct. 20.0 UT (4 images taken with 60-cm instrument)

Star names containing the Greek letters µ and ν, and the case of “u” versus “U”

When searching for a star in the International Variable Star Index (VSX) or reporting observations to the AAVSO International Database via WebObs, it is not possible to enter a Greek letter if the star has a Greek letter as part of its name – one cannot search for “µ Cep” or “ν Pav”. There has been ongoing confusion about how to spell out some of the Greek letters used in star names, and in particular about how to spell out µ and ν.

V4362 Sgr (Nova Sagittarii 1994 No. 2)

V4362 (Nova Sagittarii 1994 No. 2)

Yukio Sakurai of Mito, Ibaragi, Japan, photographically discovered Nova Sgr 1994 No. 2 on May 20.710 UT at visual magnitude 10.8. On a photo taken by Sakurai four days earlier, he notes that no image was visible at this location down to magnitude 11.5. He captured the nova on its rise to maximum on SG400 patrol films taken with a 300-mm camera lens. Optical spectrograms obtained by S.J. Austin, G. Schwarz, and S. Starrfield, Arizona State University, and R.M.