Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams -- Image credits

IAUC 5644: 1992y; GRO J0422+32; BZ UMa

The following International Astronomical Union Circular may be linked-to from your own Web pages, but must not otherwise be redistributed (see these notes on the conditions under which circulars are made available on our WWW site).

Read IAUC 5643 SEARCH Read IAUC 5645

View IAUC 5644 in .dvi or .ps format.
IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 5644
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Telephone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)
TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM     EASYLINK 62794505
MARSDEN@CFA or GREEN@CFA (.SPAN, .BITNET or .HARVARD.EDU)


COMET SHOEMAKER (1992y)
     Carolyn S. Shoemaker reports her discovery of a comet on films
taken by E. M. Shoemaker, D. H. Levy, and H. Holt with the 0.46-m
Schmidt telescope at Palomar.  There is a tail fanned toward the
south-southwest.  D. D. Balam, University of Victoria, provides a
precise position obtained with the 0.25-m Schmidt telescope.

     1992 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.        m1    Observer
     Oct. 25.47413    4 23.5       +25 45        15.5   Shoemaker
          26.35416    4 23.0       +26 04                 "
          27.42646    4 21 16.08   +26 24 26.1          Balam


GRO J0422+32
     C. Chevalier and S. A. Ilovaisky, Observatoire de Haute-
Provence, communicate:  "CCD photometry of the optical counterpart
of the hard x-ray transient GRO J0422+32 (IAUC 5580, 5588) was
obtained with the 1.2-m telescope at Haute-Provence during three
different runs (Sept. 1-4, 18-21, and 30-Oct. 1) in the B, V, and I
bands.  Time analysis of this data set shows that a low-amplitude
periodic modulation is superposed onto a gradual 0.25-mag decline
in brightness, with small (< 0.1 mag) night-to-night changes in
mean level.  The most probable period is 4.96 hr, but the 1-day
alias at 4.50-hr cannot be ruled out.  The light curve exhibits two
maxima and two minima per cycle and has a mean peak-to-peak
amplitude of 0.04 magnitude."


BZ URSAE MAJORIS
     J. A. Mattei, American Association of Variable Star Observers,
reports that this star has gone into bright outburst, as indicated
by the following visual magnitude estimates:  Oct. 26.29 UT, 10.5
(D. York, Abiquiu, NM); 27.25, 11.8 (York); 27.38, 12.2 (J. McKenna,
Upper Montclair, NJ).  This cataclysmic variable has not been this
bright since it reached mv = 10.3 in 1975 October, and its last
confirmed outburst was at mv about 12 in 1991 April; Mattei
encourages that high-speed photometry be undertaken.


1992 October 27                (5644)            Daniel W. E. Green

Read IAUC 5643 SEARCH Read IAUC 5645

View IAUC 5644 in .dvi or .ps format.

Our Web policy. Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.

Valid HTML 4.01!