Observation by Tracie Heywood: Autumn 2020 eclipse of Eta Geminorum

Uploaded by

Tracie Heywood

Observer

Tracie Heywood

Observed

2020 Nov 01 - 00:00

Uploaded

2021 Apr 07 - 13:29

Objects

Propus
Lightcurve
Variable star

Equipment

NE
10x50B

Target name

Eta Geminorum

Title

Autumn 2020 eclipse of Eta Geminorum

About this image

This is my light curve showing the autumn 2020 eclipse of Eta Geminorum.

In addition to being a semi-regular variable with a period of 233 days, Eta Gem also shows eclipse at intervals of approx 2984 days (8.17 years).

I don't have enough observations from 2019 and early 2020 to work out where Eta Gem was within its 233-day semi-regular cycle, but looking at the AAVSO V light curve from recent years, it is likely that the most recent SR maxima occurred during Nov-Dec 2019 and July-Aug 2020 (and so it is currently around its latest SR maximum).

Thus it seems that eta Gem had just started to fade from last year's SR maximum when the eclipse started in late Aug/early Sep.

Mid-eclipse probably occurred around early November, a few weeks earlier than would have been extrapolated from the smallish number of previous eclipses of Eta Gem that have been observed.

Working out the depth of the eclipse is tricky, given that Eta Gem was also fading into a SR minimum, but in mid eclipse eta Gem was around half a magnitude fainter than I usually see it in a SR minimum.

Files associated with this observation

etaGem_LC_2020apr-2021apr.png (6.4 kB)

Like this image

Jeremy Shears, David Basey, Graham Winstanley, Dr Andrew Smith

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