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AAVSO
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international nonprofit organization, founded in 1911, focused on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers. The AAVSO creates records that establish light curves depicting the variation in brightness of a star over time, and makes them available to professional astronomers, researchers, and educators. Since professional astronomers do not have the time or the resources to monitor every variable star, astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can make genuine contributions to scientific research. During 2011, the 100th year of the AAVSO's existence, the 20-millionth variable star observation was received into the database. The AAVSO International Database (AID) stores over 35 million observations as of 2019. The organization receives nearly 1,000,000 observations annually from around 2,000 professional and amateur observers and is quot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journal Of The American Association Of Variable Star Observers
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international Nonprofit organization, nonprofit organization, founded in 1911, focused on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomy, amateur astronomers. The AAVSO creates records that establish light curves depicting the variation in brightness of a star over time, and makes them available to professional astronomers, researchers, and educators. Since professional astronomers do not have the time or the resources to monitor every variable star, astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can make genuine contributions to scientific research. During 2011, the 100th year of the AAVSO's existence, the 20-millionth variable star observation was received into the database. The AAVSO International Database (AID) stores over 35 million observations as of 2019. The organization receives nearly 1,000,000 observations annually from around 2,000 pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
8900 AAVSO
8900 AAVSO, provisional designation ', is a stony background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 5.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American amateur astronomer Dennis di Cicco at the U.S Sudbury Observatory , Massachusetts, on 24 October 1995. The asteroid was named after the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Orbit and classification ''AAVSO'' is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. It orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.9 AU once every 4.04 years (1,475 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 9 ° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was obtained at Kleť Observatory in 1979, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 16 years prior to its discovery. Naming This minor planet was named after the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), an astronomical pro-am organization that promo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arne Henden
Arne Henden (born 1950) is a retired American observational astronomer, instrument and software specialist, and co-discoverer of a minor planet. He formerly served as Director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). The asteroid 33529 Henden is named after him. Early life Henden was born in Huron, South Dakota, but as the son of an engineer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he would call several places home as he grew up with his parents and two sisters. His first astronomical brush happened when he had a chance to look at Saturn through the 24" Clarke refractor at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Henden gained his Bachelor of Science in Astrophysics in 1972, and his Masters in Physics in 1975 both from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. In 1978 he continued to gain a Masters of Science in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1985 in Astronomy, both from the Indiana University Bloomington. Work Henden moved to Ohio State University to w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leon Campbell
Leon Campbell (January 20, 1881 – May 10, 1951) was an American astronomer. He is noted for his observations of variable stars at the Harvard College Observatory. He served as Recorder of Observations for the AAVSO from its earliest days in 1915, and continued until his retirement in the 1940s. (The title was later changed to Director of the AAVSO.) He also published a number of papers and a pair of books on the topic of variable stars. Awards and honors * Pickering Memorial Astronomer, ''circa'' 1931. * AAVSO Merit Award, 1944. * The lunar crater Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ... is co-named for him and William W. Campbell. * Recipient of honorary degree of Master of Arts from Harvard University, 1949. Bibliography * Campbell, Leon and Jacchia, Luigi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epsilon Aurigae
Epsilon Aurigae (ε Aurigae, abbreviated Epsilon Aur, ε Aur) is a multiple star system in the northern constellation of Auriga, the charioteer. It is an unusual eclipsing binary system comprising an F0 supergiant (officially named Almaaz , the traditional name for the system) and a companion which is generally accepted to be a huge dark disk orbiting an unknown object, possibly a binary system of two small B-type stars. The distance to the system is still a subject of debate, but data from the Gaia spacecraft puts its distance at around light years from Earth. Epsilon Aurigae was first suspected to be a variable star when German astronomer Johann Heinrich Fritsch observed it in 1821. Later observations by Eduard Heis and Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander reinforced Fritsch's initial suspicions and attracted attention to the star. Hans Ludendorff, however, was the first to study it in great detail. His work revealed that the system was an eclipsing binary variable, a star t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amateur Astronomy
Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers make contributions in doing citizen science, such as by monitoring variable stars, double stars, sunspots, or occultations of stars by the Moon or asteroids, or by discovering transient astronomical events, such as comets, galactic novae or supernovae in other galaxies. Amateur astronomers do not use the field of astronomy as their primary source of income or support, and usually have no professional degree in astrophysics or advanced academic training in the subject. Most amateurs are hobbyists, while others have a high degree of experience in astronomy and may often assist and work alongside professional astronomers. Many astronomers have studied the sky throughout history in an amateur framework; however, since the beginning of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Tyler Olcott
William Tyler Olcott (January 11, 1873–July 6, 1936) was an American lawyer and amateur astronomer. He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, to William Marvin Olcott and E. Octavia Tyler, and was educated at Trinity College at Hartford, then attended law school in New York. Although admitted to the bar in New York and Connecticut, he never practiced law. In 1902, he was married to Clara Hyde. During 1905 while vacationing in Rhode Island, a friend of Clara introduced him to the stars and constellations. He was instantly enthralled, and two years later had published his first book, ''A Field Book of the Stars''. In 1909, after attending a lecture by Edward Charles Pickering, he developed an interest in observing variable stars. In 1911, he co-founded the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Olcott also wrote six books to popularize the field of amateur astronomy. Awards and honors * AAVSO Merit Award (1936) * The William Tyler Olcott Award of the AAVSO, init ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sky, night, but their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed stars, fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterism (astronomy), asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated to stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye, all within the Milky Way galaxy. A star's life star formation, begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium and trace amounts of heavier elements. Its stellar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Curves
In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequency interval or band. Light curves can be periodic, as in the case of eclipsing binaries, Cepheid variables, other periodic variables, and transiting extrasolar planets, or aperiodic, like the light curve of a nova, a cataclysmic variable star, a supernova or a microlensing event or binary as observed during occultation events. The study of the light curve, together with other observations, can yield considerable information about the physical process that produces it or constrain the physical theories about it. Variable stars Graphs of the apparent magnitude of a variable star over time are commonly used to visualise and analyse their behaviour. Although the categorisation of variable star types is increasingly done from their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, Maya, and many anc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variable Star
A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as either: * Intrinsic variables, whose luminosity actually changes; for example, because the star periodically swells and shrinks. * Extrinsic variables, whose apparent changes in brightness are due to changes in the amount of their light that can reach Earth; for example, because the star has an orbiting companion that sometimes eclipses it. Many, possibly most, stars have at least some variation in luminosity: the energy output of the Sun, for example, varies by about 0.1% over an 11-year solar cycle. Discovery An ancient Egyptian calendar of lucky and unlucky days composed some 3,200 years ago may be the oldest preserved historical document of the discovery of a variable star, the eclipsing binary Algol. Of the modern astronomers, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, and was founded in 1839. With the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it forms part of the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. HCO houses a collection of approximately 500,000 astronomical plates taken between the mid-1880s and 1989 (with a gap from 1953–1968). This 100-year coverage is a unique resource for studying temporal variations in the universe. The Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard project is digitally scanning and archiving these photographic plates. History In 1839, the Harvard Corporation voted to appoint William Cranch Bond, a prominent Boston clockmaker, as "Astronomical Observer to the University" (at no salary). This marked the founding of the Harvard College Observatory. HCO's first tele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
