Mira (Omicron Ceti) - Dec. 7, 2015 and Feb. 27, 2016
Mira (Omicron Ceti) two frame animation. The first photo was taken on Dec. 7, 2015 when Mira was near minimum light around 9th magnitude and second photo was taken on Feb. 27, 2016 when Mira was near maximum light around 3.5 magnitude. This red giant star goes from naked eye visibility to invisibility in only a couple of months. In late February and March it is sinking towards the western horizon, so anyone wanting to see it dim back to minimum will have to wait a few months until it comes back into the morning sky.
These shots were taken at the BigWoods site at Jordan Lake on two different nights. I imaged with the TeleVue Genesis and my Canon XTi DSLR. Each frame of the animation was made from 10 x 30 second subs at ISO 800 processed in ../imagesPlus and Photoshop CS2. The shots were tracked but unguided on the Losmandy G-11 mount.
Here is a light curve from the AAVSO showing the brightness of Mira from Nov. 2015 to Feb. 2016.
Here is the AAVSO finder chart for estimating the magnitude of Mira when it is near minimum.
Back to the top of the pageBack to Mark's Astrophotography Home