Monthly Archives: November 2011

The companion of W Aurigae

Looking up W Aurigae in the Simbad database, we find that it is a double star, Cou 1725. Paul Couteau discovered the double star nature of W Aur in 1979, when he measured the star on three nights. The stars … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

W Aur

Lydia Ceraski discovered 219 variable stars (or 180 – the literature disagrees somewhat). Among them are important ones such as SU UMa, RV Tauri and T UMi. Despite that, not much is known about her. She graduated from the Petersburg … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

V370 And

The discovery and observation of variables are sometimes the byproducts of astronomical projects and instruments doing other things. Current examples include the Kepler and CoRot missions. Hipparcos, the very successful European space astrometry telescope, also measured photometry, and it found … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The demoting of VW Dra

I am setting up a programme of variables to observe, and when I searched through AAVSO:s observation planner two weeks ago for semiregular variables bright enough for my binoculars (and the very light-polluted sky where I live), one of the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

R Ari

One of the great visual surveys of the northen sky was done at Bonn by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander with the aid of his asistants Eduard Schönfeld and Adalbert Krüger. They observed the sky north of -2 degrees declination during the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

V538 Cas

BD 60deg 201 is a star in Cassiopeia. Its variability was discovered by R. Weber. It was one of 75 new variables announced in 1958 after analysis of 2 068 photographic plates exposed between 1942 and 1958 using three cameras … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

R Dra

I’m writing a series of posts on objects I observe or find interesting for other reasons. Let’s start it off with R Dra. This Mira with a period of 246 days varies between 6.7 and 13.2 visually. Its variability was … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment