April 22, 2012: The blazar OJ 287 (Cancer) has brightened from its low optical state to its high state and is flaring. The Astronomer's Telegram #4057 (S. Zola et al., http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=4057) reports very high optical activity.

Observations of OJ 287 in the AAVSO International Database may be
viewed (http://www.aavso.org/ql),
plotted (http://www.aavso.org/lcg), or

"New eJAAVSO preprint (ej156): International Observing Campaign: Photometry and Spectroscopy of P Cygni"

by E. Pollmann and T. Bauer

http://www.aavso.org/ejaavso

The AAVSO is happy to provide a copy of Bob Nelson's O-C files for Eclipsing Binaries for 2012.  These files can be used for observation planning, and are a valuable resource for EB observers.

Thanks once again for Bob Nelson for providing this service to the EB community.

In late 2011 we asked you to fill out a membership demographic survey. Participation in the survey was remarkable, with 615 people responding. An analysis of the results have recently been submitted to the JAAVSO and accepted for publication. A pre-print can be downloaded via the link below.

• The AAVSO 2011 Demographic and Background Survey Results (PDF)
  

Also, Kevin Paxson created a Google Map of members and observers, which can be viewed via the link below:

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.