Proposal #652

I have been tracking the RCB-type variable AO Her for some time. I detected it going into an apparent steep fading episode starting about 3 or 4 weeks ago and reported it in the AAVSO forums. The star has gone from its usual magnitude of about 11.2 to slightly below magnitude 17 by latest measurements. These fainter magnitudes are beyond the ability of my equipment to measure with acceptable SNRs and I was hoping a scope of the AAVSOnet might be able to keep tracking it in the near future to see if it approaches its historic minimum of about magnitude 19 or perhaps even goes below that.

V and I images would be ideal; I don't think B images are worth gathering because the star will be extremely faint in B and probably challenging even for larger scopes. Unfiltered images that can be analyzed to produce CV data would be acceptable as well.

Thank you for your consideration.

Brian Scott (SBQ)