COMMISSION 27 AND 42 OF THE IAU
                   INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                               Number 3829

                                                         Konkoly Observatory
                                                         Budapest
                                                         15 January 1993

                                                         HU ISSN 0374 - 0676


              ON THE NEW CATACLYSMIC VARIABLE STAR IN CRATER

Recently Maza et al. (1992) announced the spectrophotometric discovery of a
new cataclysmic variable J 05.23, which the authors, on the basis of their
objective-prism photographic survey, at first considered to be a Seyfert 1
galaxy candidate (position 1950.0: 11h01m09.4s, -21d21'36").
   I inspected the locality of this object on several hundred Sonneberg Sky
Patrol plates taken mainly by C. Hoffmeister, P. Ahnert, H. Huth and B.
Fuhrmann from 1928 to 1983 and centred near 11h-20d. 392 exposures reached a
threshold of 12.5m or deeper, and half of these showed a limiting magnitude
of 13.0m or fainter.
    One distinct eruption has been found. It is characterized by the following
data, which have been gained by comparison with Harvard Selected Area 127 and
corrected to the international system:

             1953 March  6.9 UT invis. >13.0m pg
                        15.0            12.6
                        15.9            12.9:
                        17.0            12.6
                        18.0            12.4
                        18.9            12.6
                 Apr.    5.9    invis. >13.2

   On a number of exposures further faint traces of the object at the limit
of detectability could be seen, for instance at 1965 March 29.9 and 31.9
(12.0m). To draw statistical conclusions as regards the mean cycle length
of the eruptions is not possible, because it cannot be ruled out that a part
or all of these traces are caused by accidental grain accumulations.
   However, even if we take into account the bad conditions of the
visibility of that sky region in central Europe, we can conclude that bright
maxima are intrinsically rare and that this star might be either a long-cycle
dwarf nova or of SU UMa type. Amplitude: 5.0 mag pg.

   This work has been supported by funds of the German Bundesministerium fur
Forschung und Technologie under contract no. 05-5S0414.


                                            W. WENZEL
                                 Sternwarte O-6400 Sonneberg, FRG



References:

Maza, J., Gonzalez, L.E., Wischnjewsky, M., Barrientos, F., 1992, Publ. Astron.
     Soc., Pacific, 104, 1060. [BIBCODE 1992PASP..104.1060M ]