Variable Star Adventures by Philip Steffey 1. Taken in Stride In Daytona Beach, November began awful for observing variable stars or almost anything else -- with summerlike cloudiness and a waxing gibbous Moon. But near dusk on the 3rd the clouds broke up as a cold front approached, so I decided to attempt magnitude estimates for a few of my program stars expected to be fairly bright. Skipping this opportunity would have risked a delay till after Full Moon. Of special interest were Nova Cassiopeia 1995 and SS Cygni. First recognized in Japan in late August but recorded in surveys a month earlier, the nova was a "slow" one that had brightened to near mag. 9.0 where it remained till late October. But my last estimate made it somewhat brighter, possibly heralding a substantial rise as by Nova Delphini 1967 at a similar stage in its outburst. SS Cyg, the brightest dwarf nova (full range about 8,2 to 12.3), was due for a maximum in early November, and some professional observing teams with access to ultraviolet or X-ray instruments in Earth orbit were awaiting notification of this event and the magnitude reached, via the AAVSO. So at 7 PM on the 3rd I set up my 8-inch reflector, with which I've made well over 20,000 variable star observations since 1973, and brought my eyepieces and charts outside, taking about 10 minutes. I hastily acquired the field of Nova Cas at low power, just as a sheet of new cloud appeared in the western sky and spread eastward! I barely got a fair estimate of 8.5 for the nova before the field was blotted out. SS Cyg would have to wait. Leaving the 'scope outside but capped and under the carport roof in case Central Florida's most common recent weather, I went indoors to do some paperwork. A half hour later a peek outside revealed a clearing sky so I resumed observing. Verily, SS Cyg was "up: at mag. 8,9, probably still brightening, so my willingness to work in mediocre conditions had paid off, as in many nights in the past. And now some other stars beckoned. Picking clear sky patches between occasional, new scattered clouds for over an hour, I obtained a dozen estimates mostly of Mira or long-period variables. These included the neglected BG Andromedae, AI Persei, TU Aquilae, FF Cygni and W Piscium, which I've observed for two to seven years -- long enough to learn the idiosyncrasies of each and its comparison star sequence. The first four were past recent maxima and down to mags 10 or 11, none behaving close to predictions. W Psc, approaching max, was at 11.3, behaving well. Later the sky almost completely cleared but the moonlight became worse, so I settled for just five more observations. Noteworthy was RT Arietis, another neglected Mira, which should have been near max at mag 10 but actually was at 12.3! There is nothing routine or dull about observing such stars as many astronomers believe. Miras, including some old-timers, now dominate my program. My last observation was a tough one: the old nova GK Persei which in early 1901 erupted to rival Capella. But for me it was at its quiescent mag 13. Every five or six years it brightens to 10 or 11 so its "sleep" is worth watching. Total estimates for three hours: 18, not bad for conditions that scare off many variable star watchers. Variable Star Adventures by Philip Steffey 2. The Fun Way to SV Puppis Many amateur astronomers believe that scientifically useful observing is drudgery and people who do it are a bit crazy. Why bother to time a lunar occultation of a star, or measure a variable star's brightness, when seeing the Orion Nebula or the Whirlpool Galaxy in a big telescope is so-o-o much fun? Even gawking at someone else's telescope beats serious observing. Sadly, professional popularizers increasingly encourage these attitudes. Sorry to be unpopular, but every month, in a half-dozen variable star observing sessions totalling 20-30 hours, I view more "deep-sky" objects than most amateurs do in a couple years. Can't avoid them. The planetary nebula NGC 7662 is in a low-power field of the bright star that guides me to BG Andromedae, a semi-regular variable, and DX And, a dwarf nova. The young open cluster NGC 2362 is on my "star-hop" route to the M-type hypergiant irregular, VY Canis Majoris. AL Comae Berenicis, a novalike star that had a rare outburst in April 1995, is 8 arcminutes from the galaxy M88 and my hop to it utilizes several others. Two Mira variables in my program for almost 20 years, R and S Scorpii, are near the globular cluster M80. These are just a few examples. SV Puppis is a Mira with a period of only 168 days which I have observed since 1990, mostly with my 8-inch reflector. New in the AAVSO's program, the star's average magnitude range is poorly known but the extremes are approximately 8.0 to 14.5. The accompanying graph shows my visual estimates in five annual evening observing periods (Jan.-May). It is a crude phase diagram; see the Observer's Handbook 1994 (Royal Astron. Soc. of Canada), p. 204, for use of a refined version to derive the period of a simple variable star. SV Pup's short period, a mostly photoelectrically measured comparison star sequence, and a pretty telescopic field (see reproduction), make it fun for me to observe. But there is plenty more enroute to it. My hop begins with a viewfinder-monitored sweep 13 degrees east from Sirius to the cluster M47, from which the ëscope takes me a couple degrees more east to M46. (See Astronomy, Feb. '96, p. 62.) There I often pause to look at the superimposed planetary nebula NGC 2438, which serves to indicate sky quality. From there another finder hop, 8 deg ENE, takes me to 19 Puppis, a dim 4th mag G-type giant lying on the eastern fringe of the (more distant) open cluster NGC 2539. On good nights the scattered dim stars of the cluster beside the bright, pale yellow star, is a precious sight. Finally it's on to SV Pup, 1.5 deg SE of 19 Pup, and work, but only after an enjoyable tour featuring four deep-sky objects.