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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3143      2016 Feb 13 21.30UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074
INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK      Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk
WORLD WIDE WEB                         http://www.theastronomer.org
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METEOROID ORBIT DATABASE
L. Neslusan, Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Tatranska
Lomnica, reports with P. Jenniskens, V. Porubcan, and 
J. Svoren that they have expanded the database managed by the IAU Meteor
Data Center.

The meteoroid orbits measured by the Cameras for All-sky Meteor Surveillance
(CAMS) in 2010-2013 are now available, together with a re-formatted
meteoroid orbit catalogue from photographic observations.  In total, the IAU
MDC database now contains records derived from 4873 photographic and 110521
video meteor observations.  The data are publicly available and can be
downloaded at:
http://www.astro.amu.edu.pl/~jopek/MDC2007/index.php

Issued on CBAT 4255 2016 Feb 13

OJ 287 OUTBURSTS
Further to TA E-Circular 3142, Roger Pickard has reported the following
recent photometric V observations of this object:

2016/01/16.01 = 14.84
2016/01/27.91 = 15.32
2016/02/01.95 = 15.58

He adds: "so in V at least until Feb 1, it has been fading."

In a later e-mail of Feb 12 Roger relays:

Latest observations of this object.
2016 Feb 10: 14.02V at .92; 13.81R at .93; 13.50I  at .98
He adds: "So, a dramatic increase in brightness in V and confirming
brightness in R."

S Zola et. al. (Jaqielionian Observatory) reports on The Astronomer's
Telegram 8667:
OJ287 has been monitored in the optical wavelength with small telescopes
since the beginning of September, 2015. In November and December, an
unprecedented outburst in the optical band was noticed, with OJ287 reaching
12.9 mag in the R filter. This outburst, with a possible significant thermal
component, was followed by two flares of smaller amplitudes with maxima
occurring on Dec 22, 2015 and January 12, 2016, originating in the jet.
Recent activity:
February 5: Brightness of OJ287 rapidly rose from about 15 mag (Feb 5) to
13.87 (Feb 10)in the R band. Most recent observation taken with PROMPT5 at
3UT, Feb 10, indicate the target to be still increasing its brightness. 
On Feb 3 the degree of polarization measured using the RINGO3 polarimeter on
the Liverpool Telescope was  ~10%, rising to ~17% on Feb 7 and to 18-19% on
Feb 8. This may also confirm the flare to be of jet origin. 

A detailed report on OJ287 also appears in The Astronomer 2016 February
currently in press.

Guy M Hurst