Archive for the ‘Variable stars’ Category

U Orionis Observing Notes 2007-9 by Steve Woodbridge

The British Astronomical Association made U Orionis, a long-period variable or “Mira” star, its variable star of year for 2008 and I have been following it since that year’s maximum. This star varies over a period of around 368 days, typically from magnitude 6.5 to 12.0. Like all long-period variable...
August 16th, 2009 | VS Reports | Read More

VW Cep Observing Notes 2007-8 by Steve Woodbridge

07-8 I started observing a couple of W Ursa Majoris Stars. These contact eclipsing binaries have very short periods (fractions of a day), and because they are so close together the stars themselves are distorted, leading to continuous variation rather than the sharp dip during eclipse that Algol-type...
August 16th, 2009 | VS Reports | Read More

Variable Star Observing – Campaign Update

Update on the stars in the recent observing campaign R Scuti (Download locator chart) This RV Tauri variable (magnitude range 4.2 – 8.6) has now just come back into view in the dawn sky.   There have been two deep minima over the last 6 months, one around 3rd October 2008 and one around 22nd February...
August 13th, 2009 | VS Reports | Read More

Variable Star Observing

Contacts:John Moore:Steve Woodbridge:Variable Star Observing Campaign 2008 / 2009 Following the recent Variable Star Workshop, and the interest some of the members have shown, Steve Woodbridge has posted a version of one of the charts used in that meeting, plus a couple of other charts to...
August 12th, 2009 | VS Observing | Read More

TX Draconis Observations 2008-9 by Steve Woodbridge

TX Draconis light curve 2008-9 by Steve WoodbridgeTX Draconis AAVSO Light Curve
August 8th, 2009 | VS Reports | Read More

Rho Cas Obseving Notes 2007-9 by Steve Woodbridge

For about 2 years now I have been observing the Semi-regular variable star Rho Cassiopeiae. Semi-regular variables have a rough period and rough range, but both these can be somewhat changeable. Rho Cassiopeiae’s period is given as around 10.5 months. Rho Cassiopeiae is classified as an SRd star, which...
August 8th, 2009 | VS Reports | Read More

VW Cephei revisited by John Moore (11 Dec 2008)

The following series was recorded between 2008 Dec 09 18:30hrs and Dec 10 02:30hrs UT Equipment: Pentax 105SDHF telescope with SBIG ST10XME CCD camera Filter: V band. 914 exposures were taken of of 8 seconds and calibrated with 150 darks, flats, biases and flat-darks. A first order low pass filter to...
August 8th, 2009 | Variable stars | Read More