I have been trying to keep up the momentum of observing and recording variable star brightnesses. On the evening of October 5th it looked like it was going to be a good night as the sky was clear and the moon was only three days past new. However, I had to deal with intermittent cloud which meant periods of waiting until the skies cleared. Moonset was 17:58 UT and astronomical twilight ended about 19:20 UT.
I am going to start recording these observations in a more condensed form to save time. I will use a line for each star starting with the star ID then give the time of the observation in UT, the BAA chart ID, the estimate of the brightness in relation to the reference stars on the chart and the magnitude that this estimate corresponds to. These observations were all made with my 10x50 binoculars.
TX Dra, 20:57 UT, chart 106.04, K(5)V(2)N, mag. 7.5
AH Dra, 21:06 UT, chart 106.04, =2, mag. 7.3
CH Cyg, 21:47 UT, chart 089.04, A(3)V(5)W, mag. 6.8
RW Cep, 22:09 UT, chart 312.02, B(3)V(5)E, mag. 6.8
W Cep, 22:34 UT, chart 312.02, F(1)V(1)M, mag. 7.7
GO Peg, 22:53 UT, chart 103.02, B(3)V(5)E, mag. 7.3
Note that W Cephei is a new star for me to start observing. It is on the same chart as RW but previously I had not been making measurements of it. This is another pulsating variable star (semi-regular, type c) with a range in magnitudes of between 7.02 and 8.50. It has a main pulsation period of 350 days.
All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024
