AAVSO Special Notice #19

Confirmation Needed of Possible VY Aqr Outburst
(October 7, 2006)

Akira Imada reports in a post to the VS-Net Alert Discussion
Group that H. Maehara has observed VY Aqr in outburst (V=12.46
on Oct. 07.56330). AAVSO observers are asked to observe this
field both visually and with a CCD and report their
observations as soon as possible. The latest reported
AAVSO observation is <13.8 visual on Oct. 04.8201 by Eddy
Muyllaert (MUY).

Charts are available here:
http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/searchcharts3.pl?name=vy%20aqr

The last major outburst peaked at visual=10.0 on April 25,
1993. A smaller, subsequent outburst was observed by two
observers about a year later. That outburst lasted <2 days
and peaked at visual=11.3 on April 23, 1994. Since then
there have been no detected outbursts reported to the AAVSO.

If the outburst is confirmed, CCD time series photometry
(preferably in V since this system is bright) is
recommended. Observe as long as possible and set your
exposure time to achieve SNR>=100. There are reports in
the literature of peculiar superhump behavior in this
system and it would be nice to get good, long term coverage
of an outburst.

This Special Notice was prepared by: A. Price