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BZ UMa Outburst

AAVSO Newsflash Special Notice (February 25, 2004)
0846+58 BZ UMa appears to be in outburst, its first since December,
2002. Recent observations:

  FEB 23.1924  16.27  MDW   CCDV   Err: 0.06
  FEB 23.9215 <14.0   MUY   
  FEB 25.2944  11.6   SXN   
  FEB 25.3014  11.6   SXN   

  MDW   MACDONALD II, WALTER J.  WINCHESTER, ONTARIO, CANADA
  MUY   MUYLLAERT, EDDY          OOSTENDE, BELGIUM
  SXN   SIMONSEN, MICHAEL A.     IMLAY CITY, MI. USA

 Precision time-series CCD observations in V are urgently requested.
Outbursts tend to be short so please observe as soon as possible and
for as long as possible. Possible phenomenon to be detected could be
of very low amplitude so please take care to make your observations
as precise as possible. Take extra good flat field images and keep
your SNR high. Please report your error/uncertainty. Observations in
V are preferred. If you have access to a B filter and a filter wheel
then consider observing in both B and V, but only if it does not cut
into your V observation time and lower its SNR.

 AAVSO f-scale charts with B and V CCD data from Henden (USNO) are
available:
     http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/searchcharts3.pl?name=bz%20uma
 Latest data & light curves:
     http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/quickquick.pl?star=bz%20uma

 BZ UMa is classified as a UG by the GCVS. However, it is suggested
to be a SU UMa subtype due to its short orbital period and mass
ratio (Jurcevic et. al. PASP 05/1994). If it is a SU Uma, then
superhumps should be detected in superoutbursts and as of today,
none have been.  However, some evidence of other forms of modulation
whose cause is unknown have been detected (Ringwald, BAAS 09/1990 &
Kato, IBVS #4768). It is also a bright X-ray source and it has been
suggested that this could be a type of intermediate magnetic
variable (Ishioka et al. 2002, PASJ 54, 581).
 Please submit your observations to the AAVSO as soon as possible.

Clear skies!
   Aaron Price, Technical Assistant
   on behalf of Elizabeth Waagen, Interim Director
   and Janet A. Mattei, Director
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