Polaris Revisited

We report 212 radial velocity measures of Polaris obtained during 1994–1997 and use these to rediscuss Polaris's changing pulsational amplitude and rate of period change during the 20th century. In the course of this work we discovered a serious error in an earlier paper, which led to our finding too steep a decline in amplitude in recent decades. We correct this error and no longer predict a cessation of pulsation in the 1990s. In fact, the new, more precise radial velocities suggest that the decrease in amplitude has abruptly stopped and that the peak-to-peak amplitude is holding steady at about 1.6 km s -1 , or 0.03 mag in V . The period, however, continues to change.