[Aavso-photometry] Advice for season 2 of CCD Observing

[R. Brian Potter]

Hi All,

Last summer was my first summer of doing CCD photometry of variable stars.
While I am setup to work year round (mobile setup from garage with wireless
connection to office computer), business and personal commitments kept me
from observing for the past few months. Now I am ready to go again and
hopefully the weather will cooperate tonight and/or tomorrow to allow me to
get started again.

Last year I approached CCD observing like a more accurate version of visual
observing.  I chose from a list of Mira-type stars, and averaged 3-5 V band
observations of each one before moving down the list to the next.  This type
of observing is not well supported by the software packages that I know of,
so my analysis was done in Excel (averaging observations, calculating
errors).  This year I would like to do more traditional CCD VSOing, where a
more quickly varying star type (eclipsing binary, pulsating star, irregular
variable, etc) is observed more frequently to generate a light curve.

Based on last year's observing, my setup (8" f/4 Newt, ST7, VBRI filters,
Tak EM-200 portable mount) can reach to V mag 14-15 unguided.  I plan to
observe CH Cyg according to Notice #112, but was curious as to what other
stars would be good candidates for this week?  Or do most people follow only
one star in a given night?

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Brian Potter (PRV)
Plymouth, MI