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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2412      2008 Jan 13 13.08UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074
INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK      Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk
WORLD WIDE WEB                         http://www.theastronomer.org
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COMET SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 1
Mark Kidger relays:
I am just getting reports that 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 is at the 
brightest magnitude that we have recorded it since we started monitoring 
in 2001. On 2007 December 29 it had a big outburst. There was another 
big outburst last week. On 2008 January 12 Ramón Naves and Montse Campàs 
at MPC 213 saw it at R=11.81 in a 0.26-m aperture and Juan Antonio 
Henríquez (MPC J51) R=11.71 in a 0.26-m aperture.

HT CAS
Elizabeth O. Waagen reports via AAVSO Special Notice 89 a rare outburst 
of HT Cas, coordinates: RA 01:10:12.98  Dec. +60:04:35.9 (2000). AAVSO 
observer Glenn Chaple, Townsend, MA, reports that this UGSS+EA type 
dwarf nova is in outburst for the first time since February 2002, with 
his visual observation of 13.6 on January 10.0076 UT. Makoto Uemura and 
colleagues at Hiroshima University (vsnet-alert 9807) confirmed the 
outburst with an observation of 14.02V on January 10.5278 UT. This 
outburst looks to be a normal, brief outburst, probably lasting only 2-3 
days.

Mike Simonsen and Gary Poyner announced the outburst on cvnet-discussion 
and baavss-alert, respectively.

This star has an irregular history of outbursts. According to
observations in the AAVSO International Database, all but one from 1979 
to date have been brief and have reached maximum brightness between 12.3 
and 13.3, occurring in Jan 1979, Mar 1980, Aug 1985, Feb 1987, Nov 1989, 
Nov 1995, Mar 1997, Mar 1998, Jul 1999, Apr 2001 (possible outburst), 
Feb 2002, Apr 2003 (possible outburst, single observation). On 1985 
January 12, HT Cas had a bright, long outburst, reaching visual 
magnitude 10.7 and remaining brighter than 15.2 until January 24.

HT Cas, with an orbital period of approximately 01hr 46 min, shows deep 
eclipses on the order of 1-2.5 magnitudes. Very frequent observations 
and precise reporting of times are essential.

Jeremy Shears, England, has submitted to TA a light curve of data 
collected on 2008 Jan 10 from 19h31mUT - 23h19mUT which shows two deep 
eclipses. There is a general fading trend and no superhumps (normal 
outburst rather than superoutburst). The information was collected with 
a Takahashi FS102 0.1 m fluorite refractor, unfiltered Starlight Xpress 
SXV-M7 CCD. 60 s exposures. Gemini G41 mount.

SUPERNOVA 2007uy IN NGC 2770
Stefano Valenti at University di Ferrara,Italy et. al., report on GCN 
7163 that the optical counterpart of the transient source in NGC 2270 
(cf TA E-Circular 2411) was present on images of SN2007uy taken with the 
1.8m telescope of the Asiago Observatory (+AFOSC) on 2008 Jan. 10.01 
(10.5h after the Swift detection) and not visible to a limiting 
magnitude of about 21 on Jan. 7.00UT.
The transient was of mag ~ 19 in V, fainter than SN 2007uy by 3 and 2.8 
magnitude in V and R, respectively.  Following the report of J. Deng and 
Y. Zhu (GCN7160) that the transient was roughly 2 magnitudes fainter 
than SN2007uy on Jan. 10.76, in R band, it seems that the luminosity of 
the transient is rising rapidly, supporting the very fortunate 
possibility that Swift has observed, in real time, the explosion of a 
massive star.

Guy M Hurst