For those who like to look at or image M88 in Com, the long period UGWZ dwarf nova system AL Com has just entered outburst (Apr 14.5 UT) at magnitude 13.0C.  The outburst was detected by Masayuki Moriyama (Nagasaki, Japan) with a 20cmSCT + ST-8XME.

The dwarf nova lies just 8 arc mins to the SE of M88, and a finder chart with comparison stars can be drawn up by using the AAVSO chart plotter at https://www.aavso.org/apps/vsp/    Various orientations can be entered for different types of telescope, and any field size up to 20 degrees can be plotted.

AL Com undergoes more frequent outbursts than the classical UGWZ systems (usually very long period between outbursts), with the the last one occurring in March 2015 and the previous one just 13 months before that.  

If you can make visual observations or undertake time series CCD photometry during this outburst, then the VSS would very much like to receive your data.  If you don't want to bother with all that, then just take a look or image the galaxy to see if you record it.  And if you do have a look visually, remember this isn't the star your seeing in outburst but a white dwarf accretion disc.  Not bad for an ordinary eyeball eh?

Good luck

Gary