June 1, 2018: Further to AAVSO Alert Notice 635, the AMCVn binary SDSS J141118.31+481257.6 is rebrightening, and the expected superoutburst may be underway.
May 25, 2018: Dr. Thomas Kupfer (University of California, Santa Barbara) has requested AAVSO assistance in monitoring the rare AMCVn binary SDSS J141118.31+481257.6 during its current WZ Sge-like outburst, the first outburst detected for this system.
The outburst was detected by Tadashi Kojima (Gunma-ken, Japan) on 2018 May 19.514 UT with a magnitude 12.6 V +/- 0.2. At minimum brightness 19.7 CV, SDSS J141118.31+481257.6 brightened by over 6 magnitudes, reaching a peak brightness of 12.5-12.6 V.
May 11, 2018 : Dr. Frederick Walter (Stony Brook University) has requested AAVSO assistance in monitoring V1280 Sco (Nova Sco 2007).
After it appeared as a nova in February 2007 (AAVSO Alert Notice 346), V1280 Sco reached visual magnitude ~3.8 (several observers), then faded to about 13.2, brightened to about 12.7, and underwent a dust dip in June 2007 to <15.6 V (P. Nelson). It recovered to about 10.3 by about a year later.
April 25, 2018: Dr. Jeno Sokoloski (Columbia University) and Mx. Adrian Lucy (graduate student, Columbia University) have requested AAVSO observations in support of a search underway by Mx. Lucy for symbiotic stars.
April 24, 2018: Drs. Jaroslav Merc and Rudolf Gális (both of the Pavel Jozef Šafárik University (Slovakia)), on behalf of their scientific team, have requested AAVSO assistance in observing the symbiotic variable AG Dra as a follow-up to spectroscopic observations and in order to monitor the system in its current outburst, which began in early April.
April 11, 2018: Dr. Gregory Sivakoff (University of Alberta), on behalf of a large number of collaborators, has requested AAVSO observers' assistance in monitoring the outbursting black hole X-ray binary ASASSN-18ey = MAXI J1820+070 in support of a multiwavelength "blitz" campaign taking place tonight and into tomorrow.
March 29, 2018: Further to AAVSO Alert Notice 618, Anna Pala (Ph.D. candidate, University of Warwick) informs us that the date and time of the HST observations planned for the faint polar cataclysmic variable SDSS J153817.35+512338.0 have been set for
