AAVSO Special Notice #115: Request for observations of Eta Carinae

J.C. Martin (U. Illinois-Springfield) et al recently noted 
in IAU Circular 8961 the appearance of broad He II emission 
lines in the spectrum of the luminous blue variable Eta Carinae.
Such spectral changes are an early precursor of the cyclical 
spectroscopic events that occur in eta Carinae every 5.5 years,
and are expected to occur again in early 2009.  Increased
observational coverage of eta Car -- including both visual 
estimates and high-precision photometry -- are encouraged 
beginning now and continuing through 2009 at least.  We note 
that this star is currently a part of the AAVSO Photoelectric 
Photometry program; please use SAO 238242 (V = 5.075) as the 
comparison star and SAO 238483 (V = 6.470) as the check star 
if you are using the PEPObs data submission tool in Blue & Gold.


Please submit data to the AAVSO as "ETA CAR" (AUID 000-BBR-655).


Charts for Eta Carinae may be generated with VSP:

http://www.aavso.org/observing/charts/vsp/index.html?pickname=eta%20car


This AAVSO Special Notice was prepared by Matthew Templeton.

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