Andrew Cooper
Nov 27, 2021    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Not visible to the unaided eye tonight, located in finder and recognized by the rich red-orange color, appears to be under 6th magnitude using 71 Ceti as the comparison star

AAVSO data shows Mira to be about 6 or 6.2 this eve

Andrew Cooper
Aug 15, 2021    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Brilliant orange, bright, visible to the unaided eye, estimate around 3.5 magnitude this morning, no good comparison stars in the immediate vicinity, between the magnitudes of Kaffaljidhma and Menkar

Andrew Cooper
Nov 15, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Rich orange, a 9th magnitude companion is visible 2' northeast, about 5th magnitude at the moment.


Gaia data reveals the 12th magnitude listed as C in WDS to be a background star. WDS also lists B and D companions which are likewise not physically associated.

AAVSO latest reports show Mira at 4.36 magnitude dimming from maximum in late September.

Captain William Henry Smyth
Jan 11, 1831    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A flushed yellow variable star, with a distant companion. A, recorded in extremes varying from 2 to 7, and from thence to invisible; B 10, pale lilac. This very extraordinary object is in the middle of the Whale's neck, and well known as Mira; the epithet "wonderful" being given on account of its remarkable variation in brilliance, first noticed, in 1596, by David Fabricius.

Forty-two years afterwards it was observed by Phocylides Hoi ward, and treated of in his πανσεληνοs as a new star, in a right line with lucida mandibulæ Ceti. Bailly thus relates the circumstance: "En 1638, Holward revit lʻetoile de la Baleine, et à peu-près au même lieu où elle avait été appercue par Fabricius. Il ignoroit sa première apparition, il la perdit lorsqu'elle se cacha dans les rayons du soleil; et lorsque cet astre, en s'avancant dans l'écliptique, eût rendu visibles les étoiles de la Baleine, Holward ne retrouva plus son étoile, quoiqu'il la cherchât avec soin; mais il dût être étonné de la revoir tout-à-coup le 7 Novembre, 1639. On la vit les années 1644, 45, 46, 47, 48, avec des alternatives de disparition et de renaissance, telles qu'on ne la vit jamais une année de suite. Hevelius la suivit constamment en 1648 et en 1660."

Since this time it has been found pretty regular in its periods, except in the four years 1672 to 1676, during which time Hevelius could not perceive it, though it was a particular object of his attention. Bullialdus determined its periodical time, from bright through all its gradations to bright again, to be 333 days, and Cassini made the same period to be 334.

Halley mentions that it was found to appear and disappear periodically; and that its period is "precisely enough, seven revolutions in six years, though it returns not always with the same lustre. Nor is it," he adds, "ever totally extinguished, but may at all times be seen with a six-foot tube." This was singular in its kind, till that in Collo Cygni was discovered; and the attention it excited among astronomers is detailed in the Historiola Miræ Slellæ. William Herschel, however, has decidedly shown that it actually does become invisible, and he estimated that its period is 331 days, 10 hours, and 19 minutes; and a comparison of the observations of Pigott, Goodricke, Wurm, Westphal, Argelander, and Bianchi, give its recent periods of maximum brightness between September 30 and October 7

From some discrepancies of observation between A and B, William Herschel surmised a rapid change in the distance, and that the position had changed from the southern to the northern side of the parallel; but from my measures and comparisons, I am inclined to think there has been little or no movement beyond what may be ascribed to the proper motions of A in space, the values of which have been thus sifted:

P.... RA -0".18 Dec. -0".15
B.... -0".05 -0".23
[Hipparcos -0".00933 -0".23736]

A word upon this. Piazzi's mean places of Nos. 56 and 57, Hora II., make A precede B by 104".4, with a A in declination of only 0".6, consequently the angle may be safely assumed as = 90°. The proper motion of A in RA being marked minus would by this time increase the distance from B to 111".4, and its movement in declination during the same interval being to the south, would reduce the angle to 87°.5; which is in fair agreement with my micrometrical measures.

Count de Hahn thought he saw another companion, but I could not detect it. We are also told that Mira alters its colour with its magnitude, yet it was always reddish when viewed in my telescope.

A fancied line led from Castor through Aldebaran, till it meets another shot from Al'mak by Hamal, will point out the place of this mutable body to the casual gazer, by whom, however, it is rarely picked up. It is exactly in the direction, and half-way between γ and ζ Ceti.

― A Cycle of Celestial Objects Vol II, The Bedford Catalogue, William Henry Smyth, 1844

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