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.
T Ursae Minoris (T UMi) is an LPV that has shown a dramatic increase in its period and decrease in its brightness over the last 39 years, so much so that it is no longer considered a Mira type of LPV but is now classified as a Semi-regular (SR) LPV.
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.
Event: Nova in Sagittarius - N Sgr 2018 = PNV J18040967-1803581
Discovered independently by:
- Tadashi Kojima (Tsumagoi, Gunma-ken, Japan; reported to CBAT by S. Nakano)
- Hideo Nishimura (Kakegawa, Shizuoka-ken, Japan; reported to CBAT by S. Nakano)
- Yuji Nakamura (Kameyama, Mie, Japan; reported to CBAT by M. Soma)
AAVSO Newsletter Number 76 (April 2018) has been published and is online. AAVSO members may download a high- or low-resolution version from here. This issue will be available to non-members when the next issue (Number 77, July 2018) is published.
