John Toone from the BAA VSS has informed us that:
"20th May 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the first recorded outburst of
a recurrent nova (U Sco). On 20th May 1863 Norman Pogson at Madras, India visually
detected U Sco at mag 9.1. Within 8 days it had faded to mag 12.4 and then
disappeared. Pogson had only recently defined the modern magnitude scale
and his observations of U Sco in 1863 are remarkably similar to the outburst
template derived from later eruptions by Schaefer in 2008. The discovery
of U Sco was just 7 years after Pogson had confirmed the recurrent nature of
U Gem the first dwarf nova. Pogson was also the first observer to report
flickering in a dwarf nova (U Gem again). So CV fanatics have plenty to
thank Pogson for and ought to take a little time out tomorrow (20th May)to
think about this remarkable Victorian visual observer."