Some Personal Thoughts on TV Corvi

Volume 43 number 1 (2015)

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David H. Levy

Jarnac Observatory, P.O. Box 895, Vail, AZ 85641; doveed@sharingthesky.org

Abstract

As part of the AAVSO’s role in celebrating the United Nations’ International Year of Light, I have been asked to prepare a brief retrospective on my interest in Clyde Tombaugh’s star, TV Corvi. Because of the clever light pollution ordinances that have governed the night sky surrounding the area around Tucson, Arizona, and the International Dark Sky Association, our Jarnac Observatory has been blessed with a dark night sky that often permits observations down to 19th magnitude, the star’s suspected minimum magnitude. Preparing this article has also helped me to understand that variable star observing is not just science; it is community. My own understanding of the behavior of Tombaugh’s Star is gathered from my long friendship with Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the scientist who opened the door to the Kuiper Belt to other AAVSO observers over many years, Steve Howell, from the Planetary Science Institute, who alerted me to the possibility that one component of TV Crv is a brown dwarf, and the pure joy of being able to observe this faint variable star under a dark sky.