AID

AAVSO Maxima and Minima for Long Period Variables: Data Access

These data are formally published for the years 1900 to 2008.  For a description of this data set, please click here.


Note: A separate page exists for the data including unpublished times of maxima.  Go here for the current data set including the most recent data (through February of the current year).

Stars with maxima and minima data are as follows:

AAVSO Maxima and Minima of Long Period Variables, 1900-2008

Elizabeth O. Waagen, Janet A. Mattei, and Matthew R. Templeton

Click here for data access

Introduction

Long-term observations of long period variable stars are essential to the determination of period, change in period, change in behavior resulting from mass loss and/or evolution, mode of pulsation (fundamental or overtone), internal structure, and phase at specific times for these stars.

Bibliography: visual magnitude estimates and photometry

A number of papers have been written discussing visual magnitude estimates in comparison to photometry.  Multiple studies have shown that visual magnitude estimates compare very favorably with instrumental photometry in terms of sensitivity and consistency.  As with all data, care must be taken to understand what visual magnitude estimates represent, what their bandpass is, and when their use is appropriate.

Overview: Long-term visual light curves

Overview: Long-term visual light curves

This page gives background on our long-term visual data archives, with an emphasis on our data holdings for different classes of variable stars.  It is meant to give an overview of the AAVSO International Database (AID) to researchers interested in studying a number of different light curves of a given class, or who are interested in a summary of what the AAVSO's visual data archives have to offer.