Hi All,
I have a request from the AAVSO passed on to me by the (great) Australian variable star observer Peter Williams:
Any image of NGC 300 -- member of the Sculptor Group taken between March and May 2008 is needed to investigate an optical transient that occurred apparently within NGC 300 as reported in IAU Circular 8946 issued on 16 May 2008. I know this is when NGC 300 is near solar conjunction and images are likely thin on the ground, but ...
The aesthetics of the image are unimportant -- the data is
very important as the event in question may represent the merger of two stars (wow!) and there is insufficient data at present to work with.
So, if you've got an image of NGC 300 taken between March and May of 2008 contact Arne Henden Director of the AAVSO directly:
http://www.aavso.org/
observations@aavso.org
Best,
Les D