(cba:news) Bond's outburst of the Lo 4 central star (LV Vel)

[Joe Patterson]

Dear CBAers,

Well, here's a mighty tantalizing announcement in the morning
southern sky.  Can this star have outbursted to 14.5 or thereabouts?
If your sky is clear and you can see Vela in the morning sky,
swing your telescope over and let's find out!

joe

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [vsnet-alert 10770]  Outburst of central star of Lo 4
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:19:26 -0500
From: Howard E. Bond <bond at stsci.edu>
To: vsnet-alert at kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp, 
vsnet-outburst at kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
References: <49333A25.8BCF0B6A at stsci.edu>

Dear colleagues:

As a follow-up to [vsnet-alert 10756], in which I announced a spectroscopic
outburst of the central star of the planetary nebula Lo 4 = LV Vel 
(J2000: 10 05
45.7 -44 21 32), I noticed that ASAS-3 has possibly detected a photometric
outburst of nearly 2 magnitudes on this star, at HJD 2454800.7946 = 2008 Nov
30.2946. The ASAS observation was made, fortuitously, less than one hour 
after
the spectrum was obtained.

See the ASAS light curve at:

http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/cgi-asas/asas_variable/100546-4421.5,asas3,0,0,1000,0

If real, such behavior of a nucleus of a planetary nebula is completely
unprecedented. Confirming photometric observations are urgently requested!

Calibrated B and V photometry of two nearby comparison stars is available in
Bond & Meakes, 1990, AJ, 100, 788.

Howard E. Bond
Space Telescope Science Institute