VZ Velorum: 116 years of a Mira star

Using the Harvard College Observatory Photographic Plate Collection and recent CCD observations by the ASAS project we have reconstructed the light variations of the southern pulsating red giant star VZ Velorum between 1890 and early 2006. Contrary to an early report on its low-amplitude semiregular nature, we found a relatively stable Mira-like light curve with a mean period of 318 days and amplitude up to 7 magnitudes. The latest observations show evidence for a slightly shorter period (312 days). However, the difference does not exceed the intrinsic period jitter often seen in Mira type variables.