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
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.
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)
Nice work Suzy! 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/f...nglish_ch3.pdf
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.
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
Nice work Suzy! 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/f...nglish_ch3.pdf
Good luck with it!
Cheers -
I wasn't aware of that, thanks Rob. We may make half decent variable star observers one day after all.....
Have been looking at this for a few days and was quite bright to the naked eye especially on the first night.
