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P. Zhao, J. E. McClintock (SAO)
GRO J0422+32 (= V518 Per) is a black-hole X-ray nova which went into outburst on August 5, 1992. Since then, we have been monitoring the decay light curve of the optical counterpart using the FLWO 1.2-m telescope. This 6.7-year optical light curve is the most complete yet obtained for an X-ray nova. Following the steep optical decay of the primary outburst in April 1993, two mini-outbursts were observed with amplitudes of ~4 mag and a separation of 120 days. J0422+32 entered its quiescent state in the summer of 1994 with magnitudes of R~\approx~21 and V~\approx~22. Nevertheless, X-ray activity was detected in December 1996 by the ASM detectors aboard RXTE. In addition, it appears that some optical brightening occurred early this year. We present the complete optical and X-ray light curves and examine the evidence for periods of optical/X-ray brightening during quiescence.
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