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J.R. Weirich (U. of Missouri at Rolla & Maria Mitchell Obs.), N. Samus (Inst. of Astron. Russian Ac. of Sci., Sternberg Astron. Inst.Moscow U.,), A. Baranov (Moscow Astron. Club)
Hundreds of Harvard variables lacking finding charts still need to be recovered. Besides the Harvard plate stacks, much can be done using plate collections of other observatories. For several years, we have successfully used the plate collection of the Maria Mitchell Observatory to recover "lost" variables. Plates of the Moscow collection have also been used for this purpose for many years. In 2001, we successfully recovered on Nantucket and Moscow plates ten lost Harvard variables in the constellations Sagittarius, Scorpius, and Scutum. We studied some of these stars in more detail. Six of them are shown to be pulsating red giants (semiregulars or Miras). Among the four others, two cases are especially interesting. AM Sco, earlier considered a possible Mira-type object, is probably a young irregular variable (Orion variable), and AQ Sco, earlier classified as a slow pulsating variable or an Orion variable, is an RR Lyrae star. For the recovered stars, we will present accurate coordinates, finding charts, and the results of our new photographic study. This project was supported by the NSF/REU grant AST-9820555 and the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jweirich@umr.edu