The 'U Mic' (under observed LPV) stars

Affiliation
Variable Stars South (VSS)
Mon, 11/05/2012 - 20:46

Looking at the Light Curve of the Week, U Mic, and I feel a certain responsibility for such stars being under observed. I have a balanced visual program down to 15th mag, with all the usual classes. What if I ONLY did southern LPVs? I reckon I could do almost all of them, with my 3-6k or more obs a year (depending on weather).

Some other southern observers tend to specialize a bit, like Rod S. doing seemingly every CV in the sky. But I'd pay a high price.

Comment?

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Southern LPV's

Hi Alan

For the last 6 months I have embarked on a programme to regularly monitor every LPV between declinations -10 to -60 (limits of my backyard observatory). I'm actually finding it a lot of fun. I used to observe almost exclusively CV's but in a light polluted sky and with a lot of eye strain and negative observations trying to see down to mag 15.5, they're a fair bit of work. There's a lot of Miras that I can follow through the full light cycle down to 15th mag or so.

So from my experience, I can certainly recommend it!

Regards

Andrew