[vsnet-chat 226] (fwd) Re: observing season of Mira (omicron Cet)

[Taichi Kato <tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp>]

From astroman@voyager.co.nz Thu Apr 17 18:22 JST 1997
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 21:19:11 +1200 (NZST)
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To: Taichi Kato <tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
From: Stan Walker <astroman@voyager.co.nz>
Subject: Re: [vsnet-chat 221] observing season of Mira (omicron Cet)
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At 10:52 AM 4/16/97 +0900, you wrote:
>Dear chatters,
>
>    The observing season of Mira (omicron Cet) from the northern hemisphere
>is over.  The latest reported observation to vsnet-obs was done by H. Itoh
>on Mar. 24.  Thanks to its brightness of the recent record, many beginner
>variable star observers enjoyed this monumental variable star.
>
>    I have been always wondering how long is the visibility of this variable
>from the southern hemisphere.  Being south, is it observable throughout the
>year?
>Taichi Kato
>
Greetings, All,

To answer Taichi Kato's question, no, Mira is only a few degrees south of
the celestial equator and close to the ecliptic. I've been analysing about
60 years' of southern hemisphere visual observations from the RASNZ VSS and
there is usually a gap of at least six weeks - often rather more. But it
doesn't really fit into the VSS observing programme (which concentrates on
stars south of -30) so is not heavily observed in the south. The gap means
that every decade or so a couple of maxima are missed. 

Do you have any observations prior to about 1930 of Mira? I have light
curves from Japan but would be interested in the actual measures if they
still exist.

Stan Walker

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