V616 Monocerotis (A0620-00)

L. J. Kaluzienski, S. S. Holt, E. A. Boldt and P. J. Serlemitsos, Goddard Space Flight Center, report that 3-6 keV observations from the Ariel 5 all-sky monitor show that this object experienced another 'secondary maximum', lasting for the entire month of February and representing about an order-of-magnitude increase above the flux (< ~ 0.1 times the Crab Nebula) immediately preceding the increase. A final, abrupt decline (e-folding time constant ~ 10 days) began around Feb. 29-Mar. 1, the source disappearing below the normal-mode experimental sensitivity (< 0.1 ph cm**-2 s**-1) by Mar. 20. It was absent in a higher-sensitivity-mode observation on Mar. 27, implying a flux level ~ 0.05 ph cm**-2 s**-1 (<~ 0.04 times the Crab) over a 0.5-day integration period. J. Bortle, Brooks Observatory, provides the following visual magnitude estimates: Mar. 16.04 UT, 13.1; 18.08, 13.2; 24.04, 13.3; 26.05, 13.5; 27.06, 13.7; 29.06, 13.9.