R Centauri at Millenium's End

Volume 29 number 2 (2001)

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W. S. G. Walker

P. O. Box 173 Awanui 0552 New Zealand

John Greaves

15 Borrowdale Walk Northampton NN3 6PW United Kingdom

Abstract

We have analyzed ~20,000 visual measures of the double-maximum Mira star R Centauri made by the AAVSO and the RASNZ VSS during the past 72 years. Recently there has been a marked change in the amplitude of variability and the shape of the light curve. The period is also shortening at an increasingly fast rate. V and B-V measures indicate that the first maximum is comparable to the maximum in normal, single-peaked Mira stars.