Forwarded message from Dr. Koenigsberger is attached. Please keep a close eye on this object! Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 14:51:30 -0500 (CDT) From: Gloria Koenigsberger <gloria@astroscu.unam.mx> Subject: Re: [vsnet-sdor 9] HD 5980 rapid fading Dear Dr. Kato, Luis Corral kindly sent me the message he received from you, regarding the rapid fading of HD 5980. I am very interested in this object, since I am convinced that there will be another eruptive event in the near future. In the case of the data you sent, however, I have calculated the orbital phases using the ephemerides P=19.266 and T_0=2443158.7, and find that your observations correspond to the orbital phases between 0.2 and 0.4, which coincide (at 0.36) with the eclipse of Star A (the LBV/eruptor) by Star B (presumably the original WR star), although a drop by 0.7mag does seem a LARGE drop for visual magnitudes; I don't have my data here, but I think that the usual amplitude of the light curve used to be around 0.3 mag. I would very much appreciate it if you could keep me posted on HD 5980's behavior, particularly because we have submitted a proposal for observations with HST, and any major change in its flux levels would affect the exposure time calculations, in case the proposal is approved. Furthermore, it would be very interesting to know if the short-period photometric oscillations reported by Sterken and Breysacher (1997, A&A 328, 269), which have a period of ~0.25 day, are still present. Data such as you are acquiring are extremely valuable, and I thank you for sharing them with the community. With best regards, Gloria Koenigsberger ------------- Begin Forwarded Message ------------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 23:55:12 +0900 (JST) From: Taichi Kato <tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp> To: vsnet-ecl@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp, vsnet-sdor@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp X-Distribute: distribute [version 2.1 (Alpha) patchlevel=24] Subject: [vsnet-sdor 9] HD 5980 rapid fading HD 5980 rapid fading YYYYMMDD(UT) mag observer 20001015.776 107 (A. Pearce) 20001016.787 110 (A. Pearce) 20001017.806 114 (A. Pearce)