Long Period Variables in the Magellanic Clouds and the Galaxy

Abstract

AbstractNew results (∼last two years) on mainly observational properties of Long Period Variables (LPVs) in the Magellanic Clouds and the Galaxy are reviewed. These properties include the effects of metallicity variations on their mass loss rates, the use of AGB LPVs to map the stellar distributions of the Galactic disk and bulge, and using detailed observations of nearby Miras to investigate their structure and to obtain new parallax distances, with implications for the pulsation mode of Miras.