Note: This campaign has been extended to October 2020 and the list of targets has been revised. Please see AAVSO Alert Notice 687 for details. - Elizabeth O. Waagen, December 4, 2019
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.
Nightly monitoring of FO Aqr is requested throughout the month of October 2022. Many thanks. - Elizabeth O. Waagen, 3 October 2022
Please continue observing FO Aqr according to the revised observing cadence given in the next paragraph. - Elizabeth O. Waagen, 1 February 2021
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 AAVSO observations 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 from Aril 2020: Ongoing coverage continues to be 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, April 6, 2020
Note from August 2019: 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, August 28, 2019
July 2, 2018
Event: Nova in Scutum - N Sct 2018 = TCP J18292290-1430460
Discovered by: Yukio Sakurai (Mito, Japan)
Discovery magnitude: unfiltered CCD magnitude 10.3, on two frames using Nikon D7100 digital camera + 180-mm f/2.8 lens
Discovery date: 2018 June 29.5768 UT
Coordinates (2000.0): R.A. 18 29 22.93 Decl. -14 30 44.2 (from VSX)
June 5, 2018
Event: Nova in Lupus - N Lup 2018 = PNV J15384000-4744500
Discovered by: Rob Kaufman (Bright, Victoria, Australia) at White Cliffs, NSW, Australia (via CBET 4520)
Discovery magnitude: 9.1 unfiltered CCD magnitude, object visible in 5 DSLR frames taken with 55mm lens (via CBET 4520)
Discovery date: 2018 June 03.4306 UT (via CBET 4520)
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.
