9 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
9 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
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name: Mira Ceti (ο Cet)
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constellation: Cet
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created_by: 8mag
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created_date: 2022-01-21 17:00:00
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updated_by: skybber
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updated_date: 2022-01-23 18:17:12.478262
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---
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the best-known long-period variable star, which on 13 August 1596 was thought by the Dutch amateur observer David Fabricius in Germany to be a new star, similar to the recent Tycho's Star of 1572. In fact, no star of magnitude 3 was plotted in the neck of the Whale in any atlas of that time or earlier. It was not until observing it during the following year that he discovered that it was changing its brightness. He was thus the first to discover the first variable star in the history of astronomy, in the days of Galileo before the invention of the telescope! The star gradually disappeared and reappeared until in 1603 the German astrocartographer Johann Bayer plotted it in his atlas as a 4th magnitude object. Later, in 1662, Jan Hevelius named it "Mira stella" - the wondrous star. It is pointed at by the tip of the letter "V", which is formed by the stars of the constellation Pisces. Mira is 300 light years away. |