The Be Star Newsletter, Volume 36 - April 2002

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Delta Scorpii Very Bright Sebastian Otero Liga Iberoamericana de Astronomía, Buenos Aires, Argentina email:  varsao@fullzero.com.ar Received: 2002 April 19 The recently born Be and GCAS star, delta Scorpii is brighter than ever before in its long and huge outburst. Delta Scorpii - which is at 1.67(V) (April 19, 2002)- has followed the footsteps of the prototype star, gamma Cassiopeiae, which brightened from 2.25 (V) to 1.6 in 1937. Delta Scorpii's ground state is around 2.32 (V). The current brightening of the star is out of phase with the 75 day periodicity it had been displaying since the first maximum on July 26, 2000. According to Thom Gandet (Lizard Hollow Observatory, Tucson, USA) there was a spectroscopic counterpart of this period. It's very important to monitor the star in every way possible in order to explain this change of behaviour and its current extremely bright state when it's been almost two years since the beginning of the eruption. PS: There is a lightcurve at: http://ar.geocities.com/varsao/Curva_delta_Sco.htm