Mira is at Maximum Tonight- Get Out There and Take a Look!

[Suzy]

Hi everyone :hi:

Just a heads up to let you'll know that the famous variable star, Mira (Omricon Ceti) in the constellation Cetus is at maximum right now, sitting at around mag. 2.3. It has an orange colour, and is nice and bright- you can't miss it- it's only about 17deg. away from Jupiter.

This is my first observation of Mira, and it's so exciting to see a bright star appear that wasn't there before. :D

Some further reading here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Ceti) on Mira.

The maximum period of Mira is 21-30 Sept. 2011. So go out tonight!! (apologies for late notice, but I only found out myself yesterday :rolleyes: ).
Further reading here. (http://spider.seds.org/spider/Vars/mira.html)

[astroron]

Will be observing it again tonight Suzy ,it was brilliant last night :eyepop:
Cheers :thumbsup:

[Mliss]

:D AWESOME SUZY!!! :thumbsup:

that link is an amazing read. "prediscovery sightings have been recorded, first by Hipparchus (134 B.C.)" :eyepop:

can't wait to check it out tonight!

:2thumbs:

[Mliss]

:sadeyes: :cloudy: :shrug:

i think that says it all :lol:

[Blue Skies]

2.3 is quite bright for Mira. I'm try to catch a glimpse soon.

[BlackWidow]

Took your advice Suzy and got outside to have a look.... Just got hail in my eyes and wet leaves in my hair... :mad2:

[RobF]

Hey, thanks for that Suzy. Has always been on my "to do" list, but never seem to get around to finding it let alone watching for cycle. Certainly bright, even from my street light saturated front yard :thumbsup:

[Mliss]

:lol:

the things we do...

[Suzy]

Yes Jacqui, sure is. Seems you know Mira well. :)

Les D was telling me a couple of days ago that this was a nice bright one and that we can't be guaranteed next time around of such a bright event. He also said that the average brightness maximum is 3.5 mag., so this is a brighter than normal average.




Good on you Rob! Well worth a quick look see alright!



:lol::rofl::rofl:

Go on Martin, get back out there again and take another look- I dare you. :P *boots Martin out the door* :lol:




Yes, no words required. :lol:
Oh, am sad you missed it as you were so excited to see it.:sadeyes:




It was indeed!


On my first night of observing it a couple of nights ago (29th), when I saw that the sky had suddenly cleared, around 12.30 at night, I was out there in the freezing cold in my nighty, on my back on a yeeky cold concrete slab using a thrown out empty yalumba wine cask for neck support for bino viewing it at some ridiculously high altitude. I always knew there was a good reason why I drank.:P Desperate measures, call for desperate means.:rolleyes: I was so gobsmacked at how bright this star was that I just couldn't get my eyes off it and observed it till around 2am. Next door's dog barked at me viciously for ages- and I was at my own back door. :rolleyes: Probably woke the whole street up- the neighbours obviously got woken up because they had to keep coming out to settle the dog down around 1am. :mad2:

Last night I observed it for ages naked eye and through the telescope on it's last day of maximum. Lost just a tiny bit of sparkle I thought?
Tonight, my 3rd consecutive viewing of it and it seems a wee bit dimmer. Still quite bright all the same. Tonight I really wished I knew how to measure this star.:sadeyes:
I'm going to read thru the AAVSCO site tonight and find out how to measure it as it dips into it's minimum. That site isn't particularly easy (for me anyway) to navigate thru.:rolleyes: If anyone can help me, I sure would appreciate it.

If anyone is interested in joining me on measuring Mira, please do and comment on this thread - I would love to hear feedback and it'd be fun to do so as a group. :D

[Blue Skies]

No, I don't know it that well, but I've followed it a bit over the years. I know 2.3 is bright as I had a chance encounter with it the last time it was that bright, probably back in the 90's(?). I had been outside in the evening trying to find something else and I looked across to west where a bright orange-coloured star was blinking through the trees. I was a bit puzzled as to which star it was, as I was aware enough about the sky to know there wasn't usually a bright star in that area. It was a little while later I learnt that it was Mira, and that it was brighter than it had been for some time. So that's how I know.

I had a look last night and it was certainly easy to see. Thanks for the heads up on this one. :thumbsup:

[Robert9]

Very disappointed:shrug:. Couldn't find it. Jupiter was very bright and the skies seemed clear although some mist. But Mira ?? Must be there, but perhaps cloud? Dunno. Anyone in Melbourne observe it?
Robert

[Suzy]

Steve, what a beautiful shot, thank you so much!!!! :bowdown:
I need to find out the magnitude values of those stars, and if they are the stars that are used to observe Mira by.
I am not having any luck with AAVSO, it's too hard a site to navigate thru, and I need to find out quickly.

I observed it last night and it has noticeably dipped, however it's still quite bright to the naked eye.
So Robert, I'm guessing it's the cloud- it's hard to miss, honest. Please have another go- it's worth it. :D

[RobF]

Gee, would be interesting to see a graph of the sort of magnitude variations observed versus time. I didn't think it would have dimmed perceptibly so quick. Must read more on it.

[Suzy]

Perhaps it was the sky conditions that made it seem a bit dimmer then? Seemed a clear night. :shrug:
I don't know.. I'm confused now as this is my first variable star observation.:help:
For the last 12mths I have been trying to train myself between different star brightness for when the time comes to do some variable obs, but I could be off the path here perhaps:shrug:.

Rob, Here (http://http://www.aavso.org/lcg/plot?auid=000-BBD-706&starname=MIRA&lastdays=400&start=&stop=&obstotals=on&grid=on&pointsize=1&width=600&height=450&mag1=&mag2=&mean=&visual=on&uband=on&bband=on&v=on&r=on&iband=on&j=on&h=on&unknown=on&fainterthan=on&unvalidated=on)is a graph of the light curve for Mira.
Do you think it adds up to my obsersations?

According to the Australian Sky & Telescope Magazine (issue Nov/Dec 2009), Mira normally cycles between 3rd and 10th magnitude over a 11 month period.

I really would like some feed back from others observing Mira, so I can compare it to what I see, esp. as I'm a beginner in this field.

I have found a chart at AAVSO here (http://http://www.aavso.org/vsp/chart/pl/5644cfr) to help plot the stars changes.
The comparison stars are 25,35,41 (that's mag. 2.5, 3.5, 4.1).

Steve, your image has been a great help with comparing to this chart, so again, many thanks.

[ballaratdragons]

Yes Suzy, quite exciting!

I was doing a 'Live' broadcast last night and Bert (avandonk) asked me to go over to Mira so we could all see it.

Here is a Screen Grab of Mira from my Live Broadcast last night.
Not as pretty as Steve's image, but this was Live Video:

[Suzy]

Wow!
Thanks Ken, appreciate your input! :D

[Robert9]

Yeah, found it last night! Checked the charts and there it was. I would say approx. magnitude 3, but a very poor mag 3 in the Melbourne 'burbs. Sadly it wasn't as exciting as it should have been.
Robert

[RobF]

No criticism intended Suzy - hats off to you or anyone that does good variable star observing - sounds tricky to me. I can't open those links BTW?

Wow, mag 3 to 10 sure is a big change over 11 months - amazing really (so, I'm probably only a few thousand years late with my amazement and "discovery" :lol:)

[Suzy]

Rob, I never took it as criticism.:) Pls accept my apologies if it came that way.:ashamed:

In my opinion (& it's got nothing to do with what you've said btw), the slight change I saw may indeed be imaginative star gazing or poor sky conditions, just wish there were other people observing that could see a difference in it so that I know if i'm on track or not.
Robert's post gives me some confidence tho. But it seems like I've been the only one viewing this on a nightly basis, so no one else to check my information with.:sadeyes:

And I'm not that good, I'm only a beginner in this field. :P:lol:
But If I'm proven correct in my observation that Mira has noticeably dimmed slightly (for it to be visually noticeable), then I'll need a nice sharp pin for my big head and my hat will come off. :lol:.
I still have to learn mag. estimates. So far I've only been studying star brightnesses against each other. My first test now comes with observing the magnitudes of this star as it goes into minimum.

[astroron]

Suzy I was going to have a look tonight but at the moment it is cloudy:cloudy::cloudy: but you never know it may clear up later

ron:stargaze: so still may give you a report;)

Cheers :thumbsup:

[CometGuy]

Thanks for the heads up :) Have been looking at this for a few days and was quite bright to the naked eye especially on the first night.

Terry

[astroron]

Made an observation this evening and even though it was bright moonlight I would estimate that Mira had dulled by about half a mag or so,but would need to do a telescope obs for a better estimate.
Cheers :thumbsup:

[Suzy]

I made another observation on the 8th (same day as Ron) using Alpha Ceti as a guide star. I noted that Mira is a bit duller than Alpha Ceti which sits around mag. 2.53.

Thanks for your report Ron.:D

To make a better observation, I think we need to compare it to a mag.3 star. Do you know of any mag. 3 stars in the area?
The charts for AAVSO only show duller stars (3.5, 4.5 etc)

[Rob_K]

Nice work Suzy! :thumbsup: Don't know if you're aware but you have to be careful doing visual observations of red stars like Mira. AAVSO recommend the 'quick glance' method, not letting your gaze linger on the red star. If you stare for an extended time at red stars they may appear to be unduly bright compared to blue stars, because red stars tend to excite the retina (Purkinje effect). This can lead to errors in relative magnitude. There are other methods involving de-focusing etc, some of which remain a little 'controversial'.
http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/vis_manual/english_ch3.pdf

Good luck with it!

Cheers -

[michaellxv]

Well I finally got a second look at Mira.
1st obs. was on 1st Oct and it was an obvious bright star back then. I didn't realise which star it was until I look up the chart.
2nd obs. just now and unfortunately under a near full moon so very hard to make any real comparison except that if it was as bright as before I think I would have found it quicker tonight.

Thanks Suzy, i'm glad I managed to see it near its max.

[mikerr]

The detailed treatment of Mira on page 111 may be of interest.

Pleasures of the Telescope Garrett P Serviss 1901.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=81720

Michael.

[astroron]

I observed Mira on Monday 23/10/11 at 22.30 12.00 UT and using a pair of 10x60 bino's and compairing mira with Gamma Pegasi mag 2.83 estimated Mira to be +3.1 .
Comparing the two stars in the 16" the difference was very noticable .
Cheers :thumbsup:

[deniseselmo]

I observed Mira from São Paulo, Brazil today,28/10/11 at 11h40 pm UT time using a pair of 10 X 50 binoculars and estimated its magnitude in 3,2.

[RobF]

I wasn't aware of that, thanks Rob. We may make half decent variable star observers one day after all..... :)