The Be Star Newsletter, Volume 39 - April 2007

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V434 Aur In Outburst! Thom Gandet Lizard Hollow Observatory, PO Box 89175, Tucson AZ 85745-9175 email:  tlglhobs@comcast.net Received: Apr 3, 2007;  Accepted: Apr 5, 2007 Dear Be-star colleagues, The variable Be star V434 Aur was observed to be in outburst on 01 April 2007 UT, at V=7.106 ± 0.008 mag (s.e. of four CCD images). On 03 April 2007 UT, the magnitude was virtually unchanged from 01 April. The CCD observations were made with the 0.3-m SCT at the Lizard Hollow Observatory, Tucson, AZ USA. The most recently reported outburst was observed by the Hipparcos satellite in January 1992, at V~7.14. Since the Hp magnitude is very nearly equal to V at B-V=0.07, which is the mean of published B-V for V434 Aur, the current outburst is roughly the equal of that seen by Hipparcos. The minimum magnitude observed by Hipparcos was V~7.28. Published photometry, from a variety of sources, ranges between V~7.1 and V~7.3. No contemporaneous spectroscopy and photometry could be found in the necessarily time-limited literature search conducted by the present author. However, the rate of decline from maximum seen in the Hipparcos light curve was ~0.05 magnitude in ~50 days. It therefore seems prudent to obtain spectroscopy, and additional photometry, of V434 Aur as soon as possible. Sincerely, Thom Gandet