Return to Home Page
New observations, new astrometry tonight.. The present location of the LMC is such that it can be observed in the evening as well as in the morning, depending how high the observing obstructions are. This ought to cancel out colour induced atmospheric differential refraction patterns from both observations ;-) Berto >>> Taichi Kato <tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp> 06/20/03 11:38AM >>> > There is no doubt that this star has considerably brightened. > > In the middle 90s I used to visually monitor a dozen SDOR and SDOR suspects in the LMC. > > Perhaps this is one of the fainter ones undergoing an episode similar to the eta Car (19th century) event? > > What do you think? Less likely. An SDOR-type outburst should occur in a normally blue (high temperature) object, not on a normally G star. There is clear astrophysical explanation for such an "optical" brightening of an SDOR-type star (and fading in rho Cas, as a recent example of a different class of a massive mass-loss event). In addition to spectroscopy, accurate astrometry and secure identification of the field is highly desirable -- a nova would explain the observation more naturally, if the true quiescent object is much fainter. Regards, Taichi Kato -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. Mailscanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.
Return to the Powerful Daisaku Nogami
vsnet-adm@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
