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Position: 21407n4321 (1950)
21427n4335 (2000)
Discovered: 1896 Miss L. D. Wells (Harvard)
The brightest example of what are called cataclysmic variables, classified as a U Geminorum (U Gem) type. With a period around 50 days between maximum, the star flucuates irregularly between 7.7 and 12.4 magnitude, although a peak of 8.3 is more common. The star spends most of its time around 12th magnitude with multiple outbursts per year, with a rise to maximum in a matter of days. A very enjoyable star to observe, as when changes occur they can be monitored daily, if not more frequent, and very actuately through visual observations.
There are two types of maxima
that are generally observed, a quick rise and fall that occurs over the
time scale of a week and a longer lasting maximum that levels off
for 2-3 weeks before its again quick descent.
My Observations
(Julian date: 2450000)
Observing Notes
Start from 73 Cyg which is
a bright 3 magnitude star which lies about 8 degrees east of Deneb (alpha
Cyg). When centered in view, use a low power eyepiece so that you
can see two bright stars on either side of 73 Cyg. One of these is
W Cyg another variable star. You can easily orient your map now,
by identifing W Cyg as the red-orange star. Now using a standard
atlas (such as Sky Altas 2000 or a computer generated chart) you can very
easily star hop south to 75 Cyg (or UU Cyg) which has a very close dim
companion. Drawing a line from the companion to 75 Cyg and
extending you'll reach a 8-9th star and about 1.5 degrees north you'll
find SS Cyg inclosed by a triangle of bright stars with magnitudes from
8.5 - 9.9. When near maximum the magnitude is easy to estimate by
using the 8.5 magnitude star. When at a minimum there are at least
3 good stars around 12th magnitude to use for estimation. I found
that at maximum SS Cyg not does exhibit any obvious colour when compared
to nearby stars.
Links
AAVSO - ftp://ftp.aavso.org/pub/charts/cyg/ss_cyg/
VSNET - http://www.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/vsnet/gcvs/cygss.html
Reference:
Burnham, Robert Burnham's Celestial Handbook
New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1978