COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                     Number 1905

                                   Konkoly Observatory
                                   Budapest
                                   1981 January 5

                                   HU ISSN 0374-0676



      THE PRESENT BRIGHTNESS MINIMUM OF TT ARIETIS



In IAU Circular No. 3541 J.E. Bortle and G. Klare et al. reported 
of an extreme faintness of m_v= 14.5m of this cataclysmic variable 
on 1980 November 17. Observations on Sonneberg Sky Patrol
plates show that obviously the descent already began in early
1979 and grew steepest in the autumn of 1980. Further minima
happened in winter 1956/57 (12.3m), at the end of 1958 (12.2m)
and in spring 1967 (12.6m); in brackets the deepest observations 
are given (m_pg). The mean light of the bright phase of
the star is surprisingly constant at m_pg= 10.8m. My comparison
stars were linked to Harvard SA 70 and reduced to the international 
Mt. Wilson system.
The complete lightcurve subsequently to H. Huth's observations
in MVS 1, p. 454 will appear in Mitteilungen uber Veranderliche
Sterne (Sonneberg).





                            B. FUHRMANN

                         Sternwarte Sonneberg
                      Zentralinstitut fur Astrophysik
                    Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR