Visual Discovery of Fading Events in the Wolf-Rayet Star WR 80
Abstract
Long-term visual and CCD V-band monitoring of the heavily reddened Wolf-Rayet star WR 80 from 2017-2026 reveals optical fading events that depart from its long-term stable baseline. On 26 April 2017 (JD 2457870), I discovered a deep minimum using a 22-inch (0.56-m) telescope, with the source plunging from a baseline of magnitude 14.6 down to magnitude 15.8. This 6-day event was subsequently verified via archival ASAS-SN V-band records. In July 2018, my visual observations identified a short duration fade to magnitude 15.4 that went undetected in concurrent electronic V band data streams, indicating a masking effect likely caused by near-infrared red leak contamination in the CCD filters. Following a stable phase recorded by continuous CCD V-band tracking from 2023 through early 2026, a mid-2026 visual detection caught a full 16-day fading event reaching a minimum magnitude of 15.3. These combined datasets establish that WR 80 undergoes highly variable optical obscuration events.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{stubbings2026visual,
title = {{Visual Discovery of Fading Events in the Wolf-Rayet Star WR 80}},
author = {Rod Stubbings},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.02547},
eprint = {2609.02547},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.02547},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Visual Discovery of Fading Events in the Wolf-Rayet Star WR 80
AU - Rod Stubbings
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.02547
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.02547
AB - Long-term visual and CCD V-band monitoring of the heavily reddened Wolf-Rayet star WR 80 from 2017-2026 reveals optical fading events that depart from its long-term stable baseline. On 26 April 2017 (JD 2457870), I discovered a deep minimum using a 22-inch (0.56-m) telescope, with the source plunging from a baseline of magnitude 14.6 down to magnitude 15.8. This 6-day event was subsequently verified via archival ASAS-SN V-band records. In July 2018, my visual observations identified a short duration fade to magnitude 15.4 that went undetected in concurrent electronic V band data streams, indicating a masking effect likely caused by near-infrared red leak contamination in the CCD filters. Following a stable phase recorded by continuous CCD V-band tracking from 2023 through early 2026, a mid-2026 visual detection caught a full 16-day fading event reaching a minimum magnitude of 15.3. These combined datasets establish that WR 80 undergoes highly variable optical obscuration events.
ER -