BELGIAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY V.V.S. - Working Group Variable Stars Cataclysmic Variables Circular No.148 1997, September 02 Ed.: T. Vanmunster, Walhostraat 1A, 3401 Landen, BELGIUM Internet: tvanmuns@innet.be TEL. 32-11-831504 CVC Web Page : http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~cba/cvc =================================================================== FX Cep [UGSS?, 15.0p - 17.5p] ============================= Timo Kinnunen, Finland reports his visual detection of an outburst of this CVAP object. Tonny Vanmunster, CBA Belgium has confirmed the outburst using a 0.25-m SCT telescope with ST-7 CCD. 1997 Aug 30.92 UT, [15.4 (T. Kinnunen, Finland, visual); Aug 31.90 UT, 15.1 (T. Kinnunen); Sep 01.86 UT, 15.4 (T. Kinnunen); Sep 02.854 UT, 15.6 (T. Vanmunster, 0.25-m refl., unfilt. CCD); FX Cep was discovered by Rosino (1962) and was observed in outburst rather frequently. The short recurrence time (shortest = 11 days) and the existence of a long outburst might be a hint of an SU UMa-type dwarf nova, although all attempts to detect superhumps have failed so far [e.g., CVC 51, CVC 114]. Following a private communication by Ronald Downes, Space Telescope Science Institute STSCI, Maryland, USA, [CVC 49] FX Cep is even not confirmed as a cataclysmic variable, contrary to what might be suspected from the classification in the 1993 edition of the Downes and Shara catalogue. According to our data in the CVC, FX Cep was last reported in outburst on 1996, November 30 [CVC 114] by Eric Broens, Belgium, when the object reached magnitude 14.6. It is very likely that several outbursts have been missed since then. PV Per [UGSU, 14.9p - 20:p] =========================== The PV Per outburst, reported in our previous CVC, has been a very short and faint one, as one may derive from the photometric summary below. 1997 Aug 26.028 UT, 15.5 (L. Jensen, 0.25-m refl., unfilt. CCD); Aug 26.072 UT, [14.9 (G. Poyner, 0.40-m refl., visual); Aug 28.052 UT, 15.6 (G. Poyner); Aug 30.95 UT, [15.4 (T. Kinnunen); Aug 31.95 UT, [16.0 (T. Kinnunen); Tonny Vanmunster