Actually, two observations of Z Cnc are available in our
archive. The first one is depicted here below, and was obtained
at TIRGO on Feb 6, 1993, in the L band (3.6µm).
The data show a well resolved stellar surface (diameter 0.00487±0.00018
arcseconds) and the possible presence of circumstellar emission at
the level of few percent of the total flux.
The second occultation was recorded
at the ESO 3.6m with
TIMMI
at 10µm on Dec 11, 1995 in collaboration with
H.U. Kaüfl (ESO) and B. Stecklum (Jena).
You can download a
MPEG movie of the event, consisting of
500 frames of 64X64 pixels each (1pixel=0.5arcsec). Each frame corresponds to
an integration of 28ms.
Most of the flux
seems to come from a well resolved envelope of about 0.05 arcseconds
(see below)
This striking difference is an excellent illustration of the
need for observations using different, complementary wavelengths.