Thursday, February 15, 2007

Mira

I saw Mira this evening. It is living up to its name and is amazingly bright. In my opinion it is brighter than nearby Menkar (Alpha Ceti +2.53) and at least as bright as Mintaka (Delta Orionis +2.23). This is much brighter than its average maximum brightness of +3.5, although it is known to go up to +2 on occasions. I found an updated lightcurve for the star here

Definitely one to watch in the coming evenings.