S Microscopii is a

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

in the constellation

Microscopium Microscopium ("the Microscope") is a minor constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, one of twelve created in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. The na ...

. It is a red giant star of spectral type M3e-M5.5 that is also a

Mira variable Mira variables (named for the prototype star Mira) are a class of pulsating stars characterized by very red colours, pulsation periods longer than 100 days, and amplitudes greater than one magnitude in infrared and 2.5 magnitude at visual wave ...

, with an

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

ranging between 7.4 and 14.8 over 210 days. The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa in 2003 reported that observations of S Microscopii were very urgently needed as data on its light curve was incomplete.

References

Microscopium M-type giants Mira variables Microscopii, S Durchmusterung objects 204045 102096 Emission-line stars {{giant-star-stub