[vsnet-chat 7304] Re: [AAVSO-DIS] R Hydrae possible bright maximum

[Stan Walker]

Hi Sebastian et al,

I've now got the SSP4 up and running - not the most user friendly piece of 
equipment but I've managed to sort out the operating problems. I measured R 
Hydrae and T Centauri earlier but the data have yet to be reduced. JH 
filters.

My problem is that I am having to relearn VS fields and identify the target 
stars. It would help if someone could tell me what Miras and SRs are bright 
at the moment, say magnitude 8 and rising. The observing window goes from 
about 1800 RA to 0200 and 0 to 60S. The SSP4 won't go through the forks of 
most SCs and in any case you can't get an eye to the eyepiece for stars near 
the pole.

Giorgio, I'd like to measure some of the stars you're looking at in BVRI so 
let's now which of your targets fall in this area. As the year goes on I'll 
extend the RA range eastward but it's cold this spring and the body doesn't 
like it!!! But the Sun comes back across the Equator in four weeks so the 
runs will get longer.

Regards to all,
Stan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <varsao at fullzero.com.ar>
To: <AVSON at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: <vsnet-chat at kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp>; <aavso-discussion at mira.aavso.org>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 7:24 PM
Subject: [AAVSO-DIS] R Hydrae possible bright maximum


> In this season when most of the bright miras are displaying bright maxima 
> (chi Cyg, R Cas, R Car), R Hya doesn't seem to be the exception.
> I have noticed that the star is at V= 5.3 and it is still 2 months away 
> form its maximum. The lightcurve shape is slightly different from the 
> previous cycle. The bump in the ascending branch is usually more 
> pronounced and after leaving the standstill the star rises faster again. 
> Now the bump is less pronounced but is lasting longer. If the star 
> fastened the brightening rate as in other cycles, this maximum might be 
> one of the brightest in history. Checking out the AFOEV and AAVSO 
> lightcurves I see that it got to 4.0 or so in April 1933 and to 3.9 or so 
> in March 1924.
> You can see my recent lightcurve here (including ASAS data):
> http://ar.geocities.com/varsao/Curva_R_Hya.htm
>
> My prediction is that the bump will be very long thus compensating for the 
> too early bright state. Even then, the star is very likely to display a 
> very bright maximum, around 4th magnitude in mid-October. If it wil be a 
> record-breaker, we'll see.
>
> Does someone know where the 3.5 maximum in the GCVS came from?
>
> Cheers,
> Sebastian.
> __________________________________________________
>
> Internet gratis. Siempre.
> http://www.fullzero.com.ar
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Aavso-discussion mailing list
> Aavso-discussion at mira.aavso.org
> http://mira.aavso.org/mailman/listinfo/aavso-discussion
>