I wanted to share with you all one of my favorite late summer and autumn visual eclipsing binary stars. SW Lac is a great star for smaller telescopes. I don't quite agree with the range on the chart. I have been observing this star for years and I get a range of about 8.8 to 9.4. The star is very easy to locate by star hoping.It is directly south of Omi And, just over the border with Andromeda. The star pattern is so easy to recognize because it looks like a "hockey stick".
I have attached a "b" chart for SW. If you use a refracting telescope with diagonal, or a schmidt/cas scope, print of a reversed "b", "bR" from the VSP chart plotter. Have fun with this one. All the action takes place in about 3 hours. Times of minima to about 20 minute accuracy can be found on the 2012 AAVSO Eclipsing Binary Ephemeris on the AAVSO web site.
Chris Stephan SET
Robert Clyde Observatory
Sebring, Florida USA
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| SW Lac b chart.png [1] | 61.26 KB |
Links:
[1] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/SW Lac b chart_0.png
[2] http://www.aavso.org/forums/variable-star-observing/visual-observing
