February 11, 2013: Observer Rod Stubbings (Tetoora Road, Vic., Australia) reports an outburst of the suspected old nova GR Ori (== Nova Ori 1916), observing the star at a visual magnitude of 13.0 on 2013 February 11.476 UT (JD 2456334.976). This observation was confirmed by observer Stephen Hovell (Kaitaia, New Zealand), who also reported the star at 13.0 on February 11.461. Mike Simonsen (Michigan, United States) notes that the suspected progenitor of this star has a magnitude around 22.8 in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, suggesting a large outburst amplitude of 8-10 magnitudes, and that the star may be a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova rather than a classical or recurrent nova. The overwhelming majority of observations of this star are fainter-than estimates, and the outbursting behavior is poorly measured. However, there have been instances of this object appearing bright over the past decade. Observations of GR Ori -- especially CCD time series -- are encouraged to help us better understand this object.
GR Ori is located at the following (J2000) coordinates:
RA: 05 21 34.98 , Dec: +01 10 10.2
We note that the sequence for this star has since been updated by M. Simonsen, and observers should obtain updated charts from AAVSO VSP: http://www.aavso.org/vsp
Please promptly report all observation of this star to AAVSO WebObs using the name "GR ORI".
This AAVSO Special Notice was prepared by M. Templeton.
[Note: The coordinates of the source have been updated to reflect improved astrometry of the star. These coordinates are also used in VSX.]
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