Skip to main content

100 Years of Citizen Astronomy 1911-2011

News and Announcements

Nuevo foro de AAVSO en idioma español August 23, 2011 - 12:51am

A partir de hoy, la AAVSO inaugura un espacio de intercambio para la comunidad hispanoparlante
donde intercambiar experiencias, preguntas, comentarios, información, observaciones y todo lo que tenga que ver con el estudio de las estrellas variables.

Foro de discusión de AAVSO en Español

Special Notice #249: FTP site for submitting AGN images requested in Alert Notice 443 August 19, 2011 - 9:00pm

August 19, 2011: As announced in AAVSO Alert Notice 443, Dr. Misty Bentz (Georgia State University) requests observations of four active galactic nuclei (AGN) for a study of variability in these sources by the STARE Collaboration. She requests BVRcIc filtered photometry of NGC 6814, NGC 7213, NGC 7469, and NGC 1566 from July 10, 2011, to November 1, 2011. She also requests that observers submit their images for analysis. An FTP site has been created for this purpose.

Alert Notice 445 - Request for monitoring of SS Cygni in support of European VLBI radio observations August 19, 2011 - 6:58pm

August 19, 2011: Following their very successful multiwavelength observing campaign on the dwarf nova SS Cygni in 2010 April (see AAVSO Special Notices #204 and 206 and the related information page), Dr. James Miller-Jones (International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia) and colleagues have a follow-up multiwavelength campaign on SS Cyg scheduled.

Buy the AAVSO Centennial History book directly from the AAVSO! August 17, 2011 - 3:32pm

The AAVSO has 100 copies of Advancing Variable Star Astronomy that we are selling at the discounted rate of $80. So please order from the AAVSO store and help support the organization. We have the books in stock for immediate shipment.

But wait, there's more! If you add an order for one of our limited edition Centennial T-Shirts, we will take $15 off your total order at checkout.

Special Notice #248: Radio outburst in V1343 Aquilae August 11, 2011 - 9:20am

Radio outburst in V1343 Aquilae
August 11, 2011

Note: This text was updated from the original to include the most recent observation. -M. Templeton, 2011 August 11

JAAVSO Call for Papers for Special epsilon Aurigae Issue August 10, 2011 - 12:01am

CALL FOR PAPERS

for a special edition of the

Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers

dedicated to epsilon Aurigae, similar objects and amateur observing techniques of bright stars.

Alert Notice 444: Nova Lupi 2011 August 9, 2011 - 4:01pm

Nova Lupi 2011

August 9, 2011

Event: Nova in Lupus  -  Nova Lupi 2011   =  PNV J14542000-5505030

Special Notice #247: Possible Nova in Lupus August 8, 2011 - 8:13am

Possible Nova in Lupus
August 7, 2011

Nick Brown in vsnet-alert 13560 posts about a possible new nova from his photographic survey:


"The star appears at mag 10.2 photographic, on 2 films taken on August 4.73UT using a 135F2 cannon lens and tmax 400 film.unfiltered. No object is present on film taken on july 5.85UT down to 11.7pg. No previous variable stars are reported at this near position."

The coordinates are: 14 54 20  -55 05 03  J2000

Special Notice #246: Continued Monitoring of epsilon Aurigae August 6, 2011 - 8:53pm

The bright star epsilon Aurigae has emerged from its most recent eclipse that began in August, 2009. A BVRIJH light curve for the last 365 days of the eclipse can be viewed at the following URL.

http://tinyurl.com/epsaur

Eclipses During the 2010 Eruption of the Recurrent Nova U Scorpii August 4, 2011 - 11:07am

Effects of dust on light-curves of ε Aur type stars (updated) July 28, 2011 - 10:14am

100728 Update: Dr. Budaj has offered a short description of the paper with a nice illustration, which can be read via the Citizen Sky forums.

The following is an abstract for a paper recently been posted to ArXiv (and accepted for publication in A&A Letters). The paper is based on your AAVSO observations of apsilon Aurigae and acknowledges AAVSO support.

Click here to read the paper.

New Online Forum: Getting Started with the AAVSO July 25, 2011 - 12:25pm
Visual Estimate Experiment July 21, 2011 - 12:15pm

AAVSO Newsletter 49 now online July 19, 2011 - 4:31pm

AAVSO Newsletter 49, July 2011, is now online.

http://www.aavso.org/aavso-newsletter

Week of Online Chats for Beginners: July 25-29 July 19, 2011 - 3:49pm

We will be hosting three online chat sessions for beginners to the AAVSO during the week of July 25, 2011. Below are the list of the chat topics. However, feel free to bring up any topic at any chat.

The chat room can be accessed by pointing your browser here. Details about how to use dedicated chat clients are here.

AAVSO 100th Annual Meeting July 19, 2011 - 3:45pm

October 4-8, 2011

Cambridge & Woburn, MA

The AAVSO 100th Annual Meeting will be held at AAVSO HQ in Cambridge, MA and the Hilton Hotel in Woburn, MA.  This is sure to be a once in a lifetime meeting with unprecedented attendance and a very special anniversary program.  If you've been waiting to find just the right AAVSO meeting to attend, this is it!

Pro-Am White dwarf Monitoring (PAWM) Pilot Project July 19, 2011 - 10:01am

Bruce Gary has announced a one-month pilot project to evaluate the feasibility of observing exoplanet transits of white dwarfs. The advantage of looking at white dwarfs is that the eclipses will be deeper. The disadvantage is they will be very short (on the order of minutes). So there is considerable challenge here!

Click here for his web page describing the project.

The Chart Error Reporting Tool (CHET) is back online July 11, 2011 - 11:20am
AAVSO Alert Notice 443: Long-term monitoring of four AGN in support of ground-based spectroscopy July 8, 2011 - 12:32pm

[Edited 2011 July 12 to indicate that the apertures and annuli are radii rather than diameters. -- M. Templeton, AAVSO]

Delta Scorpii: el nacimiento de una estrella Be July 8, 2011 - 9:26am

This is also available in English

Las estrellas Be

El estadio Be no es sólo una etapa evolutiva en las vidas de algunas estrellas calientes de tipo B de rápida rotación sino también un fenómeno transitorio que puede ir y venir con el paso de los años en la misma estrella.  Varias razones se han propuesto para explicar el comportamiento de estas estrellas y aun están en debate.

Delta Scorpii: the birth of a Be star July 7, 2011 - 9:20am

También disponible en español

The Be stars

Be-ness is not only an evolutionary stage in the lives of some rapidly rotating hot B-type stars but also a transient phenomenon that may come and go over the years for the same star.  Several reasons have been proposed to explain the behavior of these stars and are still in debate.

Charts and Sequences Update July 2011 July 7, 2011 - 8:11am

 

Variable Star iPhone App Now Free July 6, 2011 - 1:49pm

The Variables Stars and AstroClock iPhone apps are now available for free. Thanks, Diatom software!

Arne Henden Receives Leslier C. Peltier Award July 5, 2011 - 10:35am

Arne Henden received the Leslier C. Peltier Award from the Astronomical League last weekend at their annual meeting in Utah. Click here for Sky & Telescope's coverage of the meeting.

Arne joins fellow AAVSO staffer Elizabeth Waagen and current member/observer Gerry Samolyk as past winners.

Basic Observation Planner July 1, 2011 - 9:03am
Variable type (Use "%" for wildcard):
Faint limit of equipment
AAVSO 49 Bay State Rd. Cambridge, MA 02138 aavso@aavso.org 617-354-0484