  New spectra of NGC 2992 from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory show
that this nearby AGN has changed its type classification to a Seyfert 2 in
2006. It was originally classified as a Seyfert 1.9, and has been previously
seen as a Seyfert 1.5 with strong broad Halpha emission. A comparison of the
reddening and equivalent hydrogen column density derived for the narrow-line
region from these new data with those previously calculated for different
regions closer to the nucleus shows them to be very similar, and suggests that
these different regions are all being absorbed by the same opacity source, a
large 100-pc scale dust lane running across the nucleus. However, obscuration
by dust in this lane is probably not responsible for classification changes
which occur in only a few years. It is more likely that NGC 2992's observed
variations are due to a highly variable ionizing continuum. We therefore
conclude that, although NGC 2992 was originally identified as a Seyfert 1.9,
this was not because of an oblique viewing angle through the atmosphere of a
central dusty torus, but because its active nucleus was identified when it was
in a low continuum state.
