Variable stars

Magnitude. Get out a star chart and compare the brightness of your target to other stars of similar brightness that are listed. It may help to unfocus the bino's a little.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh OK, i see where you are coming from now. The unfocusing of the bins,scope is a good tip. That should show a difference.

Thanks Albert..

Look at 2 or 3 stars near to Algol in the sky.
Compare their brightness to each other and to Algol.
Then compare again afterwards.
You will see the difference easily.
See:
www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/object....html?page=1&c=y

Here ya are pj...

www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/object...lestars/3304276.html

Delta Cephei is also a very good one ! And...Lokk at Betelgeuse, Orion's brightest red star, that too changes, but a bit slower from magnitude 0 to 1.

Keith..

Hi,

U Cep and U Sge are Eclipsing Variables with a very marked change in a few hours when caught at minimum, have a look at www.aavso.org for more details.

There are more stars that change in minutes, but they are generally much fainter objects.

John

Betelgeuse?

I had no idea that that was a variable star. For the last 25 yrs its looked the same..........but then again i guess i wasnt looking for variables.

NOW i am.

Thanks Keith.........the top 12 seems a good place to start.

Betelgeuse is slow a bit alright, it is a semi regular variable with a period of 5-6 years, but every time you see it in october-november, ut's always a liittle brightre/fainter that when las you seen it.

Keith..