In this tutorial we will learn to perform a period analysis of the variable star R Leo. This is a long-period Mira-type variable star, located approximately 300 light years away, with a magnitude range of 4.4 - 11.3 V and a published period of 309.95 days or 312 days (there is no unique value in literature).


We will perform our period analysis by selecting all AAVSO1 observations of R Leo, made by visual observers in the period from 2000 to 2010. This will result in approximately 15.000 observations to be processed by Peranso.


In this tutorial, we will work with all Peranso window types: Observations Window (ObsWin), Period Window (PerWin) and Phase Window (PhaseWin).


We will determine the period of R Leo using two different period analysis methods and see if they yield a consistent result.


Finally, we will demonstrate that the period we have found can not be the result of aliasing, i.e. a false peak caused by the observing rate. We will then save our analysis to a Peranso project file.



(1) We acknowledge with thanks the variable star observations from the AAVSO International Database contributed by observers worldwide, and used in this research.