COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
          INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                      Number 2633
   

                                      Konkoly Observatory
                                      Budapest
                                      29 November 1984

                                      HU ISSN 0374 - 0676

               A FAINT FLARE STAR IN VELA *



   In a survey for flare stars in the young, sparse cluster IC 2391 (o Vel),
we have found a strong flare of a very faint star not reported previously to
have flared. the star is 1.7d from the cluster center, however, and is unlikely
to be a member.
   It was found on two plates taken in the direct, multiple, ultraviolet-image
manner with the Curtis Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo on 3 March 1984.
The flare commenced between 1:45 and 1:55 UT during the ninth (last) 10 minute
exposure on one plate, and the star is seen fading during all nine exposures
on the following plate which cover the time interval 2:11-3:33 UT. (See Figs.
1 and 2 ; time increases to the right.) We estimate that the star was about
4 mag above the plate limit at maximum. Four other U plates exposed for a total
of 5.5 hours in early March fail to show any trace of it. Its position relative
to a grid of six nearby SAO stars is :

              5h39m23.6s, - 54d 27' 09" (1950).

                      [FIGURE 1]
                      [FIGURE 2]
                      [FIGURE 3]


* Based on observations obtained at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory,
National Optical Astronomy Observatories, operated by the Association of 
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under contract with the U.S.
National Science Foundation.

It is not listed in the variable, proper motion, or nearby stay literature.
Fig. 3 is a finding chart copied from the SRC-J plate ; we judge the star to
be about 1.5 mag above the plate limit or B~21 when quiescent.




D.J. MACCONNELL
Dept. of physics and Astronomy
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824 USA

J.-C. MERMILLIOD
Institut d'Astronomie
Universite de Lausanne
CH-1290 Chavannes-des-Bois
Switzerland