Abstract: Dr. Thomas Killestein (Univ. of Turku) requests photometry of GOTO065054.4 (Lyn). He writes: “GOTO0650 is a dwarf nova (DN) discovered by citizen scientists working as part of the Kilonova Seekers (https://kilonova-seekers.org) project, which invites members of the public to inspect data from the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO, https://goto-observatory.org/). The object was discovered <2d from outburst, and has been the subject of an intensive follow-up campaign. We’ve been following this DN outburst with GOTO for the past month or so, and AAVSO data have already been very useful in constraining an initial dip, and tracing the evolution of superhumps. GOTO0650 entered into a deep dip (currently around 19th magnitude), but these objects often show “echo outbursts” where they rapidly rise and decline in brightness on timescales of days, with multiple of these happening before the object finally settles down into the final decline, telling us about the disk state.”
A quick check in ASTAP of the GOTO065054.49+593624.51 frames received in the last hour shows a significant increase in brightness with a tendency for the increase to continue. Until yesterday the star was running around ~18.996 (+/- 0.133) mag. Currently, the photometry shows about ~18.492 (+/- 0.105).
Thanks for all the observations of this target so far! Building on Nikola’s observation above, GOTO0650 has indeed gone into an echo outburst and currently sits around V=15 mag as of 6am UT this morning.
Continued observations as the outburst evolves are highly appreciated!
The last two nights, I managed to do a 5-—to 6-hour series in B and V. First, the star was rising. Yesterday, it started to lower. Unfortunately, the long streak of clear nights is over, bad weather is on the way, and I probably won’t be able to join in next week.