July 31, 2018: Michael Stroh (Ph.D. candidate, University of New Mexico) requests AAVSO assistance in monitoring 19 LPVs in support of a VLA campaign studying SiO masers. AAVSO monitoring begins now and goes through October 2019.
July 27, 2018: Dr. Colin Littlefield (University of Notre Dame) writes:
"In both 2016 and 2017, my colleagues and I requested AAVSO campaigns on the intermediate polar FO Aquarii to study its first-ever faint states. In both campaigns, we were delighted with both the quality and quantity of the data that we received from AAVSO observers [AAVSO Alert Notices 545, 598).
July 25, 2018: John Strachan (Ph.D. candidate, Queen Mary University of London) and Dr. Guillem Anglada-Escude (Queen Mary University of London) have requested AAVSO assistance in the monitoring of three M dwarf stars as part of the Red Dots #2 campaign.
July 24, 2018: Dr. Matt Darnley (Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University) and the AAVSO are requesting monitoring of ASASSN-18pe, the cataclysmic variable (possible long period dwarf nova) discovered 2018 July 10 by the ASAS-SN program (J. Strader et al. ATel #11867) at magnitude V = 15.8.
July 24, 2018: Dr. Dirk Froebrich (University of Kent) has requested AAVSOobservations to support their upcoming observations of V1490 Cyg. He writes:
"Background: We have recently discovered that the young star V1490 Cyg (situated in the Pelican Nebula IC 5070) is periodically occulted by material in its circumstellar disk(*). Our light-curves indicate a period of about 32 days, and the obscurations are comparable to UX-Ori type eclipses.
Note: CH Cyg recovered in early August from the fading episode described below. However, ongoing coverage is extremely important, with V and particularly B being given priority over Rc and Ic. As always, visual observations are requested and encouraged. - Elizabeth O. Waagen, November 29, 2018
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.
