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We are now accepting applications for a new position at the AAVSO HQ in Cambridge, MA. Please consult the job description via the American Astronomical Society's Job Register at the link below.

http://members.aas.org/JobReg/JobDetailPage.cfm?JobID=26573

Please share this with other blogs, mailing lists, web sites, FB, etc. so we can help spread the word. Thanks.

Looking through the MyNewsFlash data coming in the last few days, and then examining the quick look data and recent light curve, it appears V391 Lyrae may be acting peculiar. It looks like it could be going into outburst, but it's taking its good sweet time about it. I'd like to see more data in the coming weeks. Not necessarily time series but maybe two or three times per night unless you see it dramatically rising to outburst.

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Welcome to the new AAVSO web site, our first new redesign since 2003. Click here to read about it via our announcement on the AAVSO Discussion Group.

This page is to list bugs that we are aware of and their status. Report any bugs not on the list either via this form or by e-mailing aavso@aavso.org. We will update this list throughout the weekend as bugs reports come in and as we address them. This list is in order of time received:

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Question: When is a supernova not a supernova?

Answer: Now that's an interesting story...

It all started on Christmas night 2005, when astronomers using the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) in California discovered an apparent supernova not far from the center of the elliptical galaxy NGC 2274. There was nothing there on an image they had taken two weeks prior. Twelve hours later, Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatory of China confirmed the 18th magnitude object was real. It was named SN2005md and the discovery was announced in CBET #332 on December 26.
 
A spectrogram taken on December 28 showed it to be most probably a "young Type-II supernova". This was announced in an IAU Circular (8650) on the 29th of December. Subsequent KAIT images showed that SN2005md faded rather quickly and it was fainter than magnitude 19.8 by January 2006.
 
Normally that would be the end of the story, but this time it wasn't. Continue Reading

The new AAVSO website has a section devoted to information and tools for Researchers -- those who are interested in using the AAVSO International Database in their research work, and those who are interested in obtaining new observational data.  At the top of the main page, you will find a link marked Researchers that will take you to the new AAVSO Research Portal. Continue Reading

While it is undisputed that telescopes are the sexy instruments in astronomy, more and more the bulk of the work is going on with computers. The telescopes may gather the light - and they do that well - but once the light is gathered, its the computers that tend to take over. Continue Reading

I have been reading and commenting on some of the chapters in the centennial book that Tom Williams and Mike Saladyga are writing. They are doing a fantastic job of writing the AAVSO's history!
I know from my own researches in the AAVSO archives that sometimes untangling the sequence of events and figuring out who did what when is not at all easy. Kudos to Tom and Mike!

I've been putting my negotiation skills to good use the last few weeks to secure a meeting space for the October 2010 Annual Meeting.  We will be holding the meeting October 28-30 at the Hilton in Woburn, MA.  I am quite happy with this location - there are lots of restaurants & transportation options and we've gotten very good guest room rates.  We'd like to hold the 2011 AAVSO Centennial Celebration in the same space, so we're planning to take them for a "test drive" in 2010.  (There are LOTS of really cool plans in the works for the 2011 anniversary meeting - it's going to be a very special event.)

I hope many of you will be able to join us for both of these meetings!!