On request of your Editor and as a special Christmas bonus, I am offering no less than four for the price of one.
These are Orion Nebula type variables and vary rapidly, so that the observer need never feel bored. They are in a field which is extremely easy to identify. Not only is there a bright globular cluster (marked 6723) but also a prominent double star (marked 66 68). The stars vary so rapidly that they can be observed profitably every night. The time of observation should be reported to the nearest minute, or 0.001 day.
Girsh Pulik of the Johannesburg Centre has done a periodigram analysis of thousands of observations by myself and others of the light variations and perhaps he can be persuaded to let CANOPUS readers have a discussion of his results.
The bad news is that the field will be in conjunction with the sun early in January so you will have to wait until March for the field to be observable in the morning sky. But then our January and February skies are hardly conducive to consistent variable star observing.
Enjoy these interesting stars.
Danie Overbeek
