The BAA Deep Sky Section has a programme to monitor the behaviour of variable nebulae - one of the few classes of deep sky object that actually do anything. Gyulbudaghian's Nebula (named after the Soviet astronomer Armen Gyulbudaghian) is small fan shaped object, associated with the variable star PV Cephei and looking in many ways like a small version of Hubble's Variable Nebula. It lies at RA 20h 45m 55s and Dec 67o 57' 45".
This nebula, and PV Cephei, went in a deep fade last year, the nebula becoming almost invisible on even deep images. PV Cephei has now brightened to around mag 16.4 (Grant Privett 2010 March 24) and Mike Harlow's latest images (2010 April 14) suggest the nebula itself is also now brightening.
The behaviour of this nebula is not well understood - particularly the rate at which it brightens from a deep fade. Can imagers interested in observing it please monitor it on a regular basis - daily if possible - and ensure that you image under identical conditions (telescope / cameras / exposure etc) so that apparent changes in appearance of the nebula are not due to equipment changes.
Please send your observations, both JPG and FITS, along with exposure details to the Variable Nebula Co-coordinator Grant Privett at
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with a copy to the Director
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. Even if you can't see the nebula in the image please still send your observations in.
If you have any queries regarding the object itself, or imaging it, please contact Grant.
