------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2270 2006 Oct 08 12.10UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- VY AQUARII Hiroyuki Maehara, Japan, reports via VSNET Newsgroup that he has recorded a rare outburst of the UG-type variable VY Aquarii on 2006 Oct 7. CCD-derived magnitudes follow: 20061007.56576 12.51B 20061007.56330 12.46V Gary Poyner, Birmingham, mentions that the records of the Recurrent Objects Programme show the last known outburst of this star was detected by Albert Jones on 1994 April 23. The editor adds that this event was reported on TA E-Circular 833 issued on 1994 April 28. Akira Imada, VSNET Colloaboration Team mentions that this suspected UGWZ star was investigated by Patterson et al. (1993), who derived 0.06436 days as the mean superhump period. As can be seen in the light curve during the 1986 May superoutburst, VY Aqr showed a re-brightening, which may support the WZ Sge nature of the system. He adds that the current magnitude may indicate the variable is a rising stage. If this is the case, we are able to obtain the whole outburst of VY Aqr for the first time, which may allow us to clarify the nature of the variable. Patrick Schmeer, Germany reports confirmation of the outburst: 2006 Oct 04.78, [13.0; 7.749, 11.3v (0.20-m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope using the AAVSO sequence). Eddy Muyllaert, Belgium, also reports visual confirmation: 2006 Oct 07.7604, 11.4v David Boyd, West Challow, England, also observed it with a 0.35-m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and CCD with V filter on Oct 7.762 at 11.36V. An unfiltered image by Jeremy Shears, Bunbury Observatory, England, gave a magnitude of 11.42C for Oct 7.839UT. UV PERSEI Maeda Yutaka, Japan, reports on VSNET an outburst of UV Persei. On 2006 Oct 6.658UT, he estimated it at visual magnitude 11.9 using a 0.25-m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Mike Gainsford, Burbage, England noted it at magnitude 11.8v on Oct 7 at 20.39UT but with moonlight and haze. Gary Poyner comments: This could be a normal outburst, as it appears to be fading from observations made on the morning & evening of the Oct 7. If this is indeed a normal outburst, look out for a possible re-brightening to a superoutburst shortly after. In March 1996, UV Per had three outbursts in just over 20 days - a normal outburst, followed by a superoutburst and then a post superoutburst brightening! The normal outburst had faded to mag. 15.4 when a day later it had risen to 14.1 on its way to a 10-day superoutburst. These three events were unique in recorded UV Per outbursts. This also shows the value of continued monitoring after an outburst has seemingly ended! Guy M Hurst