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My Variable Star Observations

This page summarizes my variable star observing endeavor for almost two decades. It starts with a tribute to my belatedly-published observations of the recent past. Then you can find the total list of my observations followed by a breakdown of them by years and organizations they are published in.

 

A TRIBUTE TO THE PAST: MY BELATEDLY-PUBLISHED VARIABLE STAR OBSERVATIONS

After summer of 1991, partly because of my demanding daily work obligations (I have been an investment bank officer by profession), partly due to some personal reasons (I met my then future wife Gamze!), I ceased regular observing of variable stars until 1998. However I always kept an eye on them from time to time. Below table gives my variable star observations made between 1992 and 1996. As you can notice the observing periods were very irregular and coincided with warm spring and summer nights which were more comfortable. I think that every astronomical observation must have been published somehow. So, these estimations which stayed on the yellowish sheets of a folder until now finally "see the light" by being posted in our web site (in January 2000). I hope they will be useful to the astronomical community.

 

 
Notes:
After posting on the Web, these observations were submitted to the AAVSO in March 2000.
The variable V1974 Cygni is the Nova Cygni 1992 discovered by Peter Collins on February 19, 1992 (for more information please see Sky and Telescope, February 1994, p. 20-25).
UT, Universal Time is the time at the Greenwhich meridian in London, UK.
You can find an explanation of Julian Date at this link.
To understand magnitude scale please visit Astronomical Dictionary or Ask a High-Energy Astronomer web sites.

 

Mr. Emile Schweitzer's manual plotting of my first observations to encourage my endeavor.

 

TOTAL LIST OF MY OBSERVATIONS SINCE 1983

As I mentioned in "My Astronomical Resume" section of "Who Am I?" page, my first variable star estimation was for R Scuti at visual magnitude 6.1. It was a wonderful late summer night. Although I had been regularly making observations of planets and constellations for more than four years then, I was still nervous about whether or not I could locate that little dot in AFOEV's chart in the sky where it scintillated. I started looking at the constellation Aquila through my 8x30 binoculars. Doing my homework before going out into the dark balcony, I had checked Sky Atlas 2000.0 and decided that Altair was a good starting point to hunt R Scuti down. As I slowly lowered my binoculars to the southwest, I came upon the now familiar "C" shape of stars at the Aquila-Scutum border. My heart was pounding in my chest so strongly that I had nearly dropped the binoculars! I could not believe my eyes! That was indeed the "C" shape in AFOEV's chart. It did not take me long to find the now familiar paralellogram shape consisting of R Scuti itself and three other comparison stars. There it was! The upper right hand star must had been the variable I was looking for. It was so incredible to find it out so easily and quickly that I fell in love with that star. So as my wife Gamze tells me in every occasion, it is my favorite variable star I still observe faithfully and strongly recommend to beginners. My love with this variable is to such an extent that, our new car has now its vanity plate named, of course, "R SCUTI"! Another reason why R Scuti intrigues me so much might be how the name of the constellation it resides is connected to the Ottoman empire, predecessor to current day Turkey.

The vanity plate of our new car, "RSCUTI".
 

In this section I present you the quasi-total list of my incredible journey into the realm of variable stars since my first sighting of my favorite. The tables contain; designation and name of the variable, julian date and decimal of the observation, estimated magnitude of the variable.

My Variable Star Observations sent to the AAVSO 
My Variable Star Observations sent to the BAA-VSS 
My Variable Star Observations sent to the HAA-VSS 
My Variable Star Observations sent to the AFOEV 

BREAKDOWN OF MY OBSERVATIONS BY YEARS AND ORGANIZATION

My first variable star estimations consisting of R Scuti, W Cygni and a couple of others made in 1983 were published in "Le Bulletin de l'AFOEV" in spring of 1984. Then, I started sending them to HAA-VSS, to the AAVSO and to the BAA-VSS, after being a member of these two latter organizations in 1984. The below table gives the breakdown of my published variable star estimations both by years and by organizations submitted to.

 

Notes:
1) 1992-1996 observations were submitted to the AAVSO only in March 2000.
2) AAVSO publishes observations sent during their fiscal year which is from October 1st through September 30th.
Other associations publish observations sent within the calendar year.
3) Actual number of observations for a given year might be lower since same observations are sometimes sent to several associations.

 

VARIABLE STAR CHARTS OF MY OWN

After my first attempt of putting together charts for three of the Fleming variables in 1999, I finally decided to produce some more for my own use. I will try especially those binocular variables which have nothing other than mere sketches dating from 1950's.

 

MS EXCEL FILES OF OUR VARIABLE STAR OBSERVATIONS

Our 2001 observations of variable stars
Our 2002 observations of variable stars
Our 2003 observations of variable stars
Our 2004 observations of variable stars, coming up soon!
 

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Copyright © 1999-2005 by Gamze & Haldun I. Menali. All rights reserved.
Information contained herein could only be linked to your web page. Please do not copy and paste.
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