The symbiotic Mira, RX Pup, shows long-term variations in its mean light
level due to variable obscuration by circumstellar dust. The last increase in
extinction towards the Mira, between 1995 and 2000, has been accompanied by
large changes in the degree of polarization in the optical and red spectral
range. The lack of any obvious associated changes in the position angle may
indicate the polarization variations are driven by changes in the properties of
the dust grains (e.g. variable quantity of dust and variable particle size
distribution, due to dust grain formation and growth) rather than changes in
the viewing geometry of the scattering region(s), e.g. due to the binary
rotation.Comment: Paper presented at Torun 2000 conference on Post-AGB objects as a
phase of stellar evolution; 8 pages, 3 figure
