Electronic Telegram No. 3909
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbatiau@eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat@iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


ETA CARINAE
     E. Fernandez-Lajus, N. E. Salerno, and C. Scalia, Facultad de Ciencias
Astronomicas y Geofisicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina, as
members of the La Plata eta Carinae monitoring group, report from observations
made between June 2 and 19 that eta Car has shown a sudden brightness increase
of about 0.10-0.15 mag in bands B, V, R, and I in comparison with the previous
observations up to Apr. 26.  (No observations were made between Apr. 26 and
June 2 because of technical problems and bad weather conditions.)  This
increase could be related to the ascending branch of the light curve preceding
the "eclipse-like" event.  This event is associated with the periastron
passage of the binary inside the central region of the Homunculus (e.g.,
Fernandez-Lajus et al. 2010, New Astron. 15, 108; hereafter FL10; and
references therein).  According to the ephemeris from FL10, this event is
expected to occur around 2014.6, and a brightness peak is expected to occur
around July 28.  The authors' last observations made on June 19 give the
following magnitudes:  B = 5.22, V = 4.50, R = 3.64, I = 3.11.  The CCD
observations were performed as described in FL10.  Updated light curves can be
seen at website URL http://etacar.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/.


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 June 21                     (CBET 3909)              Daniel W. E. Green