The existing CCD program has yielded over 3 years of four-color photometry of the eight Hipparcos Long Period Variable Stars. Over 2,500 measurements have been contributed by members Ron Zissell, Tom Michalik, Don Pray, Priscilla Benson and Gary Walker. While four-color transformed photometry has indeed been a rewarding program, it has also been a very technically intense activity. At times, I had to remind myself that this was supposed to be fun. These are all active in our visual programs, but they all go to 15th to 19th magnitude at minimum.
Visual estimates are very difficult and sometimes impossible.
This is why we want to monitor these stars using CCD cameras. This will allow observers who do not want to get involved with a complete set of filters and a filter wheel to simply use a single filter. In most cases, this filter can just screw into the camera nose. While unfiltered estimates may also be valuable, their high red sensitivity will make it impossible to combine with the visual data. Some photometry done in the past, be it PEP , Visual, or CCD is only as reliable as the comparison star magnitudes.