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March 27, 2014: Koichi Nishiyama (Kurume, Japan) and Fujio Kabashima (Miyaki, Japan) report (via the IAU CBAT TOCP page, http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/unconf/tocp.html) their discovery of a transient in Scorpius [V1534 Sco]:
R.A. 17 15 46.83 Dec. -31 28 30.3 (2000.0)
2014 Mar. 26.84867 UT, magnitude 10.1 unfiltered CCD
Over the weekend the AAVSO International Database (AID) hit an important milestone. We broke the twenty-five million mark! We would like to express our appreciation to each and every observer who has contributed even a single observation to that total.
March 17, 2014: HST/COS is scheduled to observe the the U Gem-type dwarf nova
SDSS J100658.40+233724.4 this Thursday. Observations are scheduled for:
SDSS J100658.40+233724.4 2014 March 20 05:35:00 through 14:17:27 UT
The scheduling team will likely make their final decision early WEDNESDAY (March 19), so your observations are essential tonight and tomorrow night.
March 14, 2014: On 2014 March 20 at approximately 02:06 a.m. EDT (06:06 UT), an occultation of Regulus (alf Leo, magnitude 1.4 V) by the magnitude-12.4 V asteroid (163) Erigone will take place. The occultation track includes Bermuda and northwest along a corridor stretching from the mid-Atlantic USA through Ontario, Canada.
The February 2014 Solar Bulletin is now available. Please visit the Solar Bulletin web page to download your copy: http://www.aavso.org/solar-bulletin
Annual Report of the AAVSO for 2012-2013
March 5, 2014: HST/COS are being scheduled for the U Gem-type dwarf nova SDSS J100658.40+233724.4, the 40th and final target of the major CV observing campaign organized in 2012 by Drs. Boris Gaensicke, Joseph Patterson, Arne Henden, and 13 other astronomers (see AAVSO Alert Notice 471 and note below). A precise time will be announced later, but the scheduled HST observing window is:
SDSS J100658.40+233724.4 2014 Mar. 20 or 21 UT (to be determined)
Predicted Dates of Maxima and Minima of 381 Long Period Variables for 2014
Congratulations to AAVSO staff member Mike Simonsen, and to AAVSO Past President Mario Motta who each have had an asteroid named in their honor by the IAU Minor Planet Center.
The official citations read as follows:
(367732) Mikesimonsen = 2010 UT62 Discovered 2005 May 4 by J. Bedient at Faulkes Telescope. Mike Simonsen (b. 1956) is a talented musician, an accomplished horticulturalist, a popularizer of astronomy, and a leader in the study of variable stars.
