COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
          INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                      Number 1789

                                     Konkoly Observatory
                                     Budapest
                                     1980 May 19


         VARIABILITY OF NEBULOUS OBJECT AT 15h44m +46.4d


Comparing two 40 cm astrograph plates of a field centered at beta Aur with the
blink microscope I discovered a small but distinct variability of the star-like
central part of the nebulous object with the approximate coordinates 5h44.1m,
+46d26' (1855). The variable condensation appears slightly reddish. The
brightness variations are slow in the range 14.4m to 15.5m (pg).

At our request Dr. P. Notni took an image tube spectrogram at the Tautenburg 2
m telescope and found that the object is a Seyfert Galaxy. He also drew our
attention to the fact that it is catalogued by Vorontsov-Vel'yaminov and
Krasnogorskaya under number 8-11-11 in their Morphological Catalogue of
Galaxies (Moskva-Shternberg Trudy 32).

Further details on the lightcurve will be given in Mitteilungen uber
Veranderliche Sterne, Sonneberg. The object receives the provisional
designation S 10838.


HERTA GESSNER
Sternwarte Sonneberg
Zentralinstitut fur Astrophysik
Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR



                     [From IBVS 1810]

Erratum (IBVS No. 1789)
As is quoted correctly in the text, the nebulous object lies at alpha=5h44m1 in
the field of beta Aur and not at 15h44m. Readers should delete the "1" in the
heading.