YSO

Special Notice #209: Nightly monitoring of TW Hya in support of HST observations

May 17, 2010: Dr. Michael Sitko (U. Cincinnati) requests observations of the young stellar object TW Hya in support of upcoming Hubble Space Telescope observations. TW Hya is believed to be a T Tauri star that varies between magnitudes 10.5 and 12.2. TW Hya will be observed with the HST STIS instrument as part of a larger program to study the properties of potentially planet-forming disks around young stars. The star will be observed in the ultraviolet to search for time-variability in the gas in the inner accretion disk.

Alert Notice 488: Observations of AA Tau requested to schedule XMM-Newton

August 1, 2013: Dr. Hans Moritz Guenther (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) has requested nightly observations of the classical T Tauri star AA Tau in order to schedule x-ray observations with XMM-Newton that have been planned for between 2013 August 15 and September 15.

Alert Notice 478: Transformed photometry of young stars in Cha requested

January 16, 2013: Dr. Péter Ábrahám (Konkoly Observatory, Budapest, Hungary) has requested the assistance of AAVSO observers in monitoring eight young stars in Chamaeleon in support of photometry he and his colleagues will be obtaining with the VLT/ISAAC (infrared) and Herschel Space Observatory (far-infrared) during January-February 2013.

The Trapezium, BM Orionis, and Young Stellar Objects

Just over one year ago, a small spacecraft called MOST began a month-long observing run on one of the most spectacular objects in Earth's skies, the beautiful Trapezium region at the heart of the Orion Nebula, M42.  My collaborators and I applied for and received this observing time to survey variability in this young stellar cluster -- partly to study the eclipsing binary BM Ori (theta 01 Orionis B), but also to survey as many young stars that we were able to using the unique capabilities of MOST.  Since then, I along with my collaborators -- our Director Arne H

Special Notice #235: Request for archival data: V1647 Ori and McNeil's Nebula

February 15, 2011: Dr. Colin Aspin (U. Hawaii) has requested archival images and other observations of the FU Orionis variable V1647 Ori and the surrounding field over the previous 10 years in support of a study of this star.  Aspin writes that he is hoping to obtain more data with which to create a multi-year light curve of this star to put present-day observations in context of its past behavior.

Alert Notice 427: Observing campaign on BM Ori and the Trapezium region

November 23, 2010: The AAVSO requests ground-based observations of the Trapezium region of the Orion Nebula (M42), along with surrounding regions in Orion, in conjunction with upcoming observations with the MOST Satellite.  All AAVSO observers are encouraged to participate in this project, and we are requesting observations for a number of different targets from both instrumental and visual observers.

Alert Notice 425: Monitoring of HBC 722 and VSX J205126.1+440523 Requested

October 1, 2010: Dr. Colin Aspin (U. Hawai'i) has requested the help of AAVSO observers in performing long-term photometric monitoring of the two new young stellar objects (YSOs) in Cygnus, HBC 722 and VSX J205126.1+440523 (see AAVSO Special Notice #216).