As we move into the depths of the southern winter we have the Milky Way overhead in the mid-evening sky, the Cross is getting lower in the South and Grus is surprisingly high in the East.
Shortly we'll move into the less crowded regions of the sky. Capricornus, Piscus Austrinae, even Cetus will be visible late in the night. The Milky Way goes north, so that many of the brighter variables are low in the West or East - or the North if you have AAVSO charts. So even if the nights are cold and the weather is indifferent make the most of what is on offer. Even daylight saving, which makes astronomy a tiring pastime, is not far off.
It's really a little late in the year, but a few stars in Centaurus and Crux have something to offer. Perhaps you could look at the dual maximum Miras, a rather interesting group of stars for both visual and CCD observers (filters required in the latter case). Link to Mira information and an article by Walker and Greaves.
It's getting late for another star of interest but for the more southern observers QZ Carinae is an interesting target. Here only B and V, or V and R measures are needed in order to derive good visual magnitudes. QZ is one of the most massive systems in our galaxy, comprising two pairs of massive early stars with a total mass of about 100 times that of the Sun. One problem - the period of 5.997days means that the measures repeat at intervals of three days ( a double humped light curve similar to beta Lyrae). It's not, regretfully a visual target, but keep an eye on the nearby eta Carinae. Who knows what eta will do?
A target for the visual observers could be YY Centauri and a nearby Mira discovered at Auckland Observatory about 30 years ago. We call this YYa, although it might have a VS designation by now. YY Cen has a nasty period of 368 days. But YYa is more cooperative target - and the presence of a close ninth magnitude companion means that it can't be accurately observed by ASAS.
If you're a morning observer keep an eye on Mira, omicron Ceti. It's faint at present but will be bright by summer. Every northerner watches this star, although it's just south of the equator, but many of us overlook it because it's not on a VSS chart. It has a close companion - not the clearly visible one - which varies due to Mira's own stellar wind which in turn varies with Mira's period of ~330 days.
Then let's try a little recreational astronomy. The CCD people who are used to the fast eclipses of Z Chamaeleontis oand OY Carinae will think this a bit pedestrian, but XZ Sagittarii is no slouch in this field, fading from 8.82 to 10.93 in 52 minutes. A magnitude every 25 minutes or so. And you can see this through any telescope without a computer and CCD!
Go to for more information about XZ Sgr.