I made Z And very faint a couple of nights back, around 11.7 which is the faintest I have ever seen it. Anyone else have obs at that time? The only contributing factor may have been the field’s proximity to the roof of the observatory, which I considered at the time. However none of the other field stars looked fainter than they were supposed to.
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Hello Michael,
I’m sure you have since checked LCG-2 but your visual of 11.7 seems a little low compared to other visual and V filter photometry around that date. Is it real or is it Memorex?
Best regards,
Jim (DEY)
Hi James,
Yes I did take a quick look at other obs around that time, and I am aware that mine differs somewhat. The very fact that it surprised me by its apparent faintness was what prompted me to check such things as the mag of other stars in the field, since the field was right up against the slid-off roof of the observatory, which can obviously dim the image. But none of them looked fainter than expected. I have been observing Z for several years and that faintness stood out because I wasn’t expecting it. So actually it’s sort of ‘anti-memorex’!
Actually, some of the later visual obs are heading towards fainter values - I usually find Z And to be around 11.0 and some of those obs are fainter than that.
I know a few years back it was several days before a fade of R CrB was spotted by many observers. It’s easy to see what you expect to see (paraphrasing Herschel).
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