Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Mira dimming

Although Mira's (omicron Ceti) expected maximum was to be tomorrow, the star has dimmed significantly since its maximum around the 17th February. I could not get a good view since being clouded out for the past days. Tonight is clearer but thin high cloud foiled any meaningful observation. From the little I could see, the star was fainter than Menkar (alpha Ceti mag +2.53). The AAVSO website gives the present magnitude at around +2.7.

It appears that this year's maximum was brighter than average and came earlier than expected.