Radio emission from R Aquarii

R AQUARII has been known as a variable star since its discovery by Harding in 1811. Although R Aquarii is usually referred to as a long-period variable it has been described as a symbiotic nova by Merrill (ref. 1, page 84) and Payne-Gaposhkin². Photographic evidence discussed below indicates that a nova outburst occurred approximately 600 yr ago. Prompted by the nova-like radio outbursts from Cygnus X-3 we started a search for radio emission from some of the eruptive variable stars. Here we report the detection of variable radio emission from R Aquarii.