April 14, 2012: The possible nova in Scutum (PNV J18562170-0852300) described in AAVSO Special Notice #275 (http://www.aavso.org/aavso-special-notice-275) has been shown not to be real.

Update: The talk is completed. Videos of this talk, and the others, are available here. Also, here is a link to the policy webcast at STScI that Kevin referred to in his talk.

April 10, 2012:  Dr. Michael Rupen (National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM) has informed us that he and his colleagues of the EVLA (Expanded Very Large Array) Nova Team are carrying out a multiwavelength campaign on the Fe II-type nova Nova Oph 2012. They have triggered observations with Swift, JVLA (Jansky Very Large Array), SMA (Submillimeter Array), and high-resolution optical spectroscopy. He is requesting AAVSO observations in support.

5 de abril de 2012:  John Seach (Chatsworth Island, NSW, Australia) reporta su descubrimiento de un objeto variable en Centaurus en 2012, Abr. 4.765 TU  con magnitud 10.8 (6 imágenes (magnitud límite 11.5) obtenidas con una cámara DSLR con lente de 50-mm f/1.0).

April 4, 2012: Bram Ochsendorf (Leiden Observatory, Netherlands) has requested monitoring by AAVSO observers of the R CrB variable V854 Cen in support of observations to be made using the XSHOOTER instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile. Ochsendorf and colleagues have already observed V854 Cen at maximum and now need to observe it during a fading episode.

April 6, 2012 Update: The talk is over and went very well. We had a max of around 22 participants and the interaction with Bob was very informative. We attempted to record the talk using the built-in recording feature of the webinar software we are using (GoToWebinar by Citrix). It created a Windows Media Video (.wmv) file that plays correctly on a few Windows computers we tested on. However, when we tested it on OS X machines using a wide variety of video players we could never get it to fully work. We also attempted to upload it to YouTube and their software rejected the format as well. So we can't promise it will work on all computers. We are investigating alternatives for recording future webinars.

Click here to download a recording of the talk (170MB WMV file).

(There is some technical chit chat at the beginning - you may want to skip 5-10 minutes into the recording for the good stuff)

28 March 2012:  A possible nova in Centaurus was announced on the IAU CBAT Transient Objects Confirmation Page (TOCP) page with the name PNV J13410800-5815470. It was discovered by John Seach (Chatsworth Island, NSW, Australia) at magnitude 9.2 on 2012 March 23.386 UT using a DSLR with 50 mm f/1.0 lens. Spectra indicate that the object is a classical nova.

Nothing was seen by him down to magnitude 11.0 on his survey images taken on 2012 Mar. 16.396 UT.

March 27, 2012:  A possible nova in the LMC discovered at unfiltered magnitude 10.7 on 2012 March 26.397 UT (name of discoverer not given) was reported on the IAU CBAT Transient Objects Confirmation Page (TOCP). Spectra indicate the object may be a recurrent nova.

J. Hambsch reports that as of March 28.04 UT, the object appears to be fading fast and is at least one magnitude fainter than 24 hours ago.

Coordinates (2000.0):

23 March 2012: The Chandra X-ray satellite observations of the symbiotic variable CH Cyg have been scheduled as part of Dr. Margarita Karovska's (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) campaign. Please see AAVSO Alert Notice 454 and AAVSO Special Notice #267 for complete details on this observing campaign. The HST observations of CH Cyg have already been made.
 

The February 2012 Solar Bulletin is now available.

New eJAAVSO preprint (ej155): "The Effect of Online Sunspot Data on Visual Solar Observers" by K. Larsen

http://www.aavso.org/ejaavso