Accurate and densely populated BVR C I C lightcurves of supernovae SN 2011fe in M101, SN 2012aw in M95 and SN 2012cg in NGC 4424 are presented and discussed. The SN 2011fe lightcurves span a total range of 342 days, from 17 days pre-to 325 days post-maximum. The observations of both SN 2012aw and SN 2012cg were stopped by solar conjunction, when the objects were still bright. The lightcurve for SN 2012aw covers 92 days, that of SN 2012cg spans 44 days. Time and brightness of maxima are measured, and from the lightcurve shapes and decline rates the absolute magnitudes are obtained, and the derived distances are compared to that of the parent galaxies. The color evolution and the bolometric lightcurves are evaluated in comparison with those of other well observed supernovae, showing no significant deviations.

We have been monitoring, at high cadence, the photometric and spectroscopic evolution of VES 263 following the discovery in 2018 of a brightening labeled as event Gaia-18azl. VES 263 is so far a neglected emission-line object discovered in the 1960s on objective prism plates, tentatively classified as a semi-regular AGB cool giant by automated analysis of ASASSN lightcurves. We have discovered that VES 263 is a bonafide massive pre-Main Sequence object (∼12 M ⊙ ), of the Herbig AeBe type. It is located at 1.68±0.07 kpc distance, within the Cyg OB2 star-forming region, and it is highly reddened (E B−V =1.80±0.05) by interstellar extinction. In quiescence, the spectral energy distribution is dominated by the ∼20,000 K photospheric emission from the central B1II star, and at λ 6µm by emission from circumstellar warm dust (T 400 • K). The 2018-19 eruption was caused by a marked brightening of the accretion disk around the B1II star as traced by the evolution with time of the integrated flux and the double-peaked profile of emission lines. At the peak of the eruption, the disk has a bulk temperature of ∼7500 K and a luminosity L 860 L ⊙ , corresponding to a mass accretion rate 1.1×10 −5 M ⊙ yr −1 . Spectroscopic signature of possible bipolar jets (at −700 and +700 km s −1 ) of variable intensity are found. We have reconstructed from Harvard, Moscow and Sonneberg photographic plates the photometric history of VES 263 from 1896 to 1995.