Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzy
The star is indeed brightening.
HST/STIS observations confirm this. The possibility of a binary star, combined with the outbursts makes it a complex star to study.
However, with spectroscopy equipment we have the technology these days to penetrate the gas and take measurements of it’s brightness variations.
More information available here http://etacar.umn.edu/etainfo/history/
http:////en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae
From Wiki Since 1990 it has been on a steady increase, and then in 1999 had a sudden spike. In 2009 there was yet another sudden spike. It is actually the brightest now - sitting at a v.mag of 4.47, current as of February 2011 - than even during the second outburst in 1890, Though the extent of the brightness of the 1890 outburst was hidden by the gas of the previous 1840 outburst.
A current chart can be seen here. http://etacar.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/ This chart is current as of February 11, 2011.
If you keep scrolling down past the charts, you will come across one more chart detailing the historic brightening going back to 1820 (that one's a goodie).
We also discussed this on the forum early last year when some of us (myself included) had noticed that it had gotten noticeably brighter. www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=60184
I apologise for my lack of science "lingo" talk and that it's very simple, (at least it's easy to understand  ), as I am not an astronomer, but a mere person with special interest in this star.  Hope the info helps anyway- I went digging through my Eta Carina Scrapbook which I made, to find all the links & info. It was good to re-visit all this information again. |
Thanks Suzy, "The Little lady old from Eta Carina" (sung to the tune of little old lady from Passadena)
I had seen all that Info but was looking for some more upto date information as say the last couple of months but couldn't find any
My own opinion was that my observations where the result of refurbished mirror and great seeing
But as you say this star is a variable and can go through phases very quickly.
Cheers