Is Shedir Variable?

Abstract

Before the age of modern photographic and CCD observations alpha Cassiopeiae was labelled as a variable star, though this variability has not been seen with modern instrumentation. We present an analysis of 3 years of high precision space-based photometric measurements of the suspected variable star alpha Cassiopeiae, obtained by the broad band Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) instrument on board the Coriolis satellite. Over the 3 years of observations the star appears to not show any significant variability. Also, data from the Hipparcos epoch photometry annex shows no significant variability.