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[vsnet-obs 643] KM Lac

Refering to the report of Taichi Kato on the KM Lac "outburst", I'd 
like to add following comments :

The object, which I reported in 'outburst', is the one identified in 
Downes and Shara. Hence, my observation does not refer to another object, 
not displayed in Downes & Shara. Last night, I checked the field again, 
and the object was still visible at roughly the same brightness. So, 
three possibilities remain :

   1) There exists a 'KM Lac' at another position than the one
      quoted in Downes and Shara. Unless the discovery paper 
      clearly would indicate another position, we have to rule out
      this possibility.

   2) The object identified in Downes and Shara is KM Lac, but
      is not variable at all OR has another variability type
      (non-ug or even non-cv).

   3) KM Lac exists at the indicated position, but currently is
      not in outburst. It then should appear as a 'close binary' 
      when in outburst.

It would not surprise me if the second possibility would turn out to
be the correct one : KM Lac might in fact be variable, but belong to 
another classification (e.g., semi-regular). This type of 
'classification error' is not uncommon at all. Recent examples include 
HN Cyg, MR Per, V1017 Sgr, UY Vul, UZ Vul, IR Lyr, and others.

The whole situation with KM Lac clearly illustrates the need to
closely monitor this object, as to see how it behaves in the
near future. Therefor, I strongly recommend observers with large
telescopes to include KM Lac in their observation programme, and
to collect as many visual estimates as possible, so that a solid
light curve can be established. I will keep KM Lac on the CVAP,
exactly for that purpose.

Regards,
Tonny Vanmunster