[AAVSO-HEN] OT 020207+200715

[Matthew Templeton]

Hi everyone,

The optical transient OT 020207+200715 reported on VSNET by Grzegorz 
Wrochna of "Pi of the Sky" remains somewhat mysterious.  Taichi Kato of 
VSNET tentatively identified the source with the M-dwarf 2MASS 
020206.533+200656.05, but that identification has not been confirmed.  It 
is possible given the large pixel size of Pi of the Sky that the 
coordinates do not match.  Furthermore, a white-light flare of over 5 
magnitudes is fairly large -- that kind of amplitude would be more typical 
of a U or B band flare, so that suggests that either this flare was very 
large, or the star is very red.  There's an x-ray source in the area, it's 
rather far away as Brian Skiff pointed out in a followup VSNET posting.

SRO is currently shut down for the monsoon, and so we can't image the 
field.  We ask that anyone capable of easily reaching V=16 please take an 
image of the field and see what exactly is there.  If you have them 
available and can achieve good s/n in reasonable time, BVRI would be 
greatly appreciated as well to better pin down the spectral type (and 
position, since it has a significant proper motion) of the potential 
matching star.

Slightly modified coordinates were sent out by Katarzyna Malek of
Pi of the Sky a short time ago:

RA: 02h 02m 07s , Dec: +20d 06m 56s

We're holding off on a Special Notice until we can gather more 
information. Please let Arne and myself know via email if you're able to 
image this field, and what you find.

Clear skies,

         Matthew (on behalf of Arne)