AAVSO Alert Notice 434

Outburst of NSV 1436

The cataclysmic variable NSV 1436 has been discovered in outburst.  This is the first bright outburst of this star observed since 1948, and followup observations are strongly encouraged.  Little is known about the nature of NSV 1436, and observations may help shed light on whether the star is an infrequently outbursting normal dwarf nova, a WZ Sge star, or recurrent nova. The object is currently just a few hours east of the Sun, and will be available for the first half of the night only.  Both time-series and multicolor photometry are encouraged.

NSV 1436 was discovered in outburst by E. Muyllaert (Oostende, Belgium) at an unfiltered (CV) magnitude of 13.49 on 2011 March 28.9576 (JD 2455649.4576), and was confirmed by M. Linnolt (Hawaii, United States) at a visual magnitude of 12.8 on March 30.2708 (JD 24556450.7708).  This star last exhibited a bright outburst in late November 1948 (Brown et al., 2010, JAAVSO 38, 176), and is a known X-ray source (Bedient 2004, priv. comm.).  A smaller outburst occurred on 2011 March 9-10, when it briefly reached magnitude ~14.5 (Linnolt: 14.5 on JD 2455629.7618; M. Simsonsen, Michigan, United States: V=14.55 on JD 2455630.6615; Linnolt: 14.55 on JD 2455630.7354).  The classification of this object is unclear, in large part because it has been poorly observed in the past.  The object is typically fainter than V=16, and has been recorded as faint as magnitude 19.  Photometry during the current outburst may provide insight into the nature of this object.

NSV 1436 is located at the following (J2000) coordinates:

RA: 04 02 39.02 , Dec: +42 50 46.0

A new sequence for NSV 1436 was published in late 2010, and observers should use the new comparison star magnitudes for photometry.  Charts and sequences for NSV 1436 may be obtained via VSP: http://www.aavso.org/vsp [1]

Please promptly report all observations of this star to the AAVSO using the name "NSV 1436".

This AAVSO Alert Notice was prepared by Matthew Templeton.

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