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The cool hypergiant star RW Cephei is currently in a deep photometric minimumthat began several years ago. This event bears a strong similarity to the GreatDimming of the red supergiant Betelgeuse that occurred in 2019-2020. We presentthe first resolved images of RW Cephei that we obtained with the CHARA Arrayinterferometer. The angular diameter and Gaia distance estimates indicate astellar radius of 900 - 1760 R_sun which makes RW Cep one of the largest starsknown in the Milky Way. The reconstructed, near-infrared images show a strikingasymmetry in the disk illumination with a bright patch offset from center and adarker zone to the west. The imaging results depend on assumptions made aboutthe extended flux, and we present two cases with and without allowing extendedemission. We also present a recent near-infrared spectrum of RW Cep thatdemonstrates that the fading is much larger at visual wavelengths compared tothat at near-infrared wavelengths as expected for extinction by dust. Wesuggest that the star's dimming is the result of a recent surface mass ejectionevent that created a dust cloud that now partially blocks the stellarphotosphere.

The Great Dimming of the hypergiant star RW Cephei: CHARA Array images and spectral analysis