The clouds cleared for about an hour so I thought why not setup and see what I can get.  I decided on Shedar and I like the way the image turned out for now, even though clouds rolled in from time to time causing me to pause shooting.

Alpha Cassiopeiae - Shedar, SchedirThe southernmost star in Cassiopeia's chair, Shedar is also the brightest, at magnitude 2.23 - though not all the time; the strange variable star γ Cas can on rare occasion vault well beyond Shedar's apparent magnitude.Alpha Cassiopeiae's traditional name Shedar (also spelled as Schedar, Shadar, Schedir, or Shedir) comes directly from the Arabic word "sadr", meaning "breast," and describes the position of the star in the heart of the ancient Queen.The small nebula NGC 281 lies near Shedar in Cassiopeia.PropertiesShedar is a cool class K0 IIIa orange giant star with a temperature of 4530 K. From its distance of 230 light years, it has a luminosity 855 times the Sun's. Its luminosity implies a size 48 times the Sun's.The apparent disks of all stars, including the Sun's, are a bit dimmer at their edges than they are at their centers because our line of sight do not penetrate as deeply at the edges. Shedar is one of the only two stars in the sky whose "limb darkening" has been directly observed (by use of an interferometer). As a result, Shedar has a very accurately determined angular diameter (0.00525") leading to an improved radius 42 times the Sun's.Shedar's chemical composition is close to solar, though the star seems deficient in zirconium and europium. Its large luminosity suggests a fairly high mass, four to five times solar. Since high mass stars burn out fast, this dying giant is only 100 to 200 million years old. It began life as a class B star much like Regulus in Leo, but has already has ceased fusing hydrogen in its core.Variability?Shedar has a curious history. Various nineteenth century astronomers claimed it could fade to mid-third magnitude; as a result, the star is still classed as variable in many listings. Since the advent of permanent photographic and electronic observation, however, Shedar has shone steadily. We have little idea of the long-term behavior of many stars, however, and it is worth keeping an eye on Cassiopeia's chair.