m42 'dust variables'

How many orion 'dust variables' can you see in M42?
Anyone track these, or how quickly they change in brightness?

With my 90mm, there's this lovely one along the right
wing, from the trapezium. It seems to wink out from the
nebula. The delicacy of M42 is usually lost in most
images I've seen of it.

-Eric B

On 11 Oct 2005 07:13:58 -0700, wrote:

How many orion 'dust variables' can you see in M42?
Anyone track these, or how quickly they change in brightness?

With my 90mm, there's this lovely one along the right
wing, from the trapezium. It seems to wink out from the
nebula. The delicacy of M42 is usually lost in most
images I've seen of it.

Hi Eric-

Any true variability caused by dust or gas clouds would have a time
scale of months or years (probably the latter for something naked eye).
I guess that what you are seeing is an optical illusion- maybe related
to the star being near the threshold of visibility and being set against
a bright background. There are other examples of this illusion (the
Blinking Planetary is probably the most famous), and I've seen the
effect myself with stars in nebulous areas.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris L Peterson wrote:
it.

Hi Eric-

Any true variability caused by dust or gas clouds would have a time
scale of months or years (probably the latter for something naked eye).
I guess that what you are seeing is an optical illusion- maybe related
to the star being near the threshold of visibility and being set against
a bright background. There are other examples of this illusion (the
Blinking Planetary is probably the most famous), and I've seen the
effect myself with stars in nebulous areas.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris,

I should have been more clear. I know the star I was seeing
was not appearing to wink because of dust. The optical effect
of the winking star in the nebula is still compelling. Just
looks beautiful.

But for someone who keeps a close eye on M42 in a larger scope,
even on a scale of days, changes in stellar brightness may
be apparent.

-Eric B