1998IBVS.4641....1M

Based on UBV photometry taken over the years of 1995 to 1997 we found that P Cygni was in average fainter and hotter than it had been at the beginning of the current decade. This fact allowed us to suggest that the star was probably at or near the minimum phase of a normal SD cycle, typical for other LBVs. Superimposed on this SD cycle we observed a rapid decrease in brightness - by about 0.145m for 30 days – with colour behaviour, at least in U-B, "bright and bluer". We suggested this was a descending branch of an "alpha Cyg-type variation". Such variations seems to be typical near the minima of the SD phases in other LBVs (Van Genderen et al., 1998; Sterken et al., 1998.