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M33 And Mira


Les Ewan

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The sky was very transparent earlier this evening and using my Skywatcher 400P the highlights of evening were M33 and Mira. The spiral structure of the Pinwheel was though faint distinctly discernible using a 21mm Celestron Ultima Duo Plossl. 

This was my best ever view of this often disappointing object, and discovered that the best way to glimpse the spiral is not to use the usual averted vision but to look straight at it. After that I turned to Mira which I have never observed before while fainter than naked eye visibility. It was remarkably beautiful shining like a red hot cinder.

The sky soon turned milky and I got packed up as a flurry of snow ensued.

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Mira. Thank you. Duly stolen for my own next list. Looking it up, wow it looks like an unusual object. A variable whose range goes from mag 4 to mag 9 over a year or so. That’s amazing, or is that typical of variables? @JeremyS?

Cheers, Magnus

Edited by Captain Magenta
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7 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

Mira. Thank you. Duly stolen for my own next list. Looking it up, wow it looks like an unusual object. A variable whose range goes from mag 4 to mag 9 over a year or so. That’s amazing, or is that typical of variables? @JeremyS?

Cheers, Magnus

Yes, Mira is the archetype of Mira Long Period Variables. Many have large ranges. Another good example is Chi Cyg, which has a larger range mag 3 to 14 in ~400 days. It has just past minimum

https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20211126_141301_b8e24fcf364b54e3

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 02/12/2021 at 15:18, JeremyS said:

{...] Chi Cyg, which has a larger range mag 3 to 14 in ~400 days. It has just past minimum

https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20211126_141301_b8e24fcf364b54e3

Interesting!  I just took a pic of Chi Cyg with a SLOOH remote scope in the Canary Islands and it's quite bright - well above mag 10 - but I might be looking at the wrong star - the field is quite crowded.

Many thanks for the link to the beautiful light curve!  I can do some planning now for my next shot.

Edited by jjohnson3803
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5 minutes ago, jjohnson3803 said:

Interesting!  I just took a pic of Chi Cyg with a SLOOH remote scope in the Canary Islands and it's quite bright - well above mag 8. 

Many thanks for the link to the beautiful light curve!  I can do some planning now for my next shot.

Just a word of warning. Chi Cyg, like all Mira long period variables, is very red. This usually means that it appears very bright on Digital images. You need to use a photometric filter, e.g. V band, if you want to measure it’s brightness.

visual estimates,  have it at mag 11.5 at the moment 

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Despite its proximity and size, I have always found M33 somewhat disappointing from the UK, personally speaking.  The sky never gets dark enough here from most places for its very low surface brightness.  The best I've ever seen it was from Oman when I was working in the interior desert at an oil facility.  There was a 10"Dob and it was spectacular in that, so dark were the skies.

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52 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Despite its proximity and size, I have always found M33 somewhat disappointing from the UK, personally speaking.  The sky never gets dark enough here from most places for its very low surface brightness.  The best I've ever seen it was from Oman when I was working in the interior desert at an oil facility.  There was a 10"Dob and it was spectacular in that, so dark were the skies.

I've often found M33 hard work but on a decent night and with some time being spent on it, it does start to reward by showing some of it's form and extent. Additionally it's one of the very few galaxies where a DSO that is external to our galaxy can be spotted with reasonably modest apertures - NGC 604 is a massive HII star forming region within M33 and I've seen it with a 100mm aperture. With a bit more aperture other such features within M33 are attainable, apparently.

 

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23 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Just a word of warning. Chi Cyg, like all Mira long period variables, is very red. This usually means that it appears very bright on Digital images. You need to use a photometric filter, e.g. V band, if you want to measure it’s brightness.

visual estimates,  have it at mag 11.5 at the moment 

At my current subscription level, I get LRGB FITS files (along with a color PNG that SLOOH generates).  I believe photometric bands are available at the next level up.

Edited by jjohnson3803
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