Light curve of V794 Aql over 1990-2012

Investigations of earlier portions of this data had concluded that the transitions to the low state were much slower than the rapid recovery, giving a sawtoothed appearance to the light curve. This behavior differs from that of most other VY Scl stars, which led to an interpretation of the large amplitude sawtooths as being due to an accretion disk (AD) instability.

However, more recent photometry strongly suggests that the bright state itself has transitions of 1-1.5mag, and that earlier studies had intermixed these bright state variations with the transitions to the low state. These newly recognized variations within the bright state sometimes appear as small outbursts (OBs) with typical amplitudes of 0.5-1.5mag and spacings of ~15-50days. The rise times of the OBs are 2-3 times faster than the decline times.