Observing campaigns

Campaign highlight: b Persei

Some of the best opportunities for contributing to astronomical research come through the AAVSO's Observing Campaigns, which are observing projects requested by individual researchers with a specific goal in mind. Some Campaigns are designed to last for a long time, and the results aren't known until well after the campaign concludes.  But some campaigns pay off immediately.  Our campaign on the bright star b Persei is an example of the latter, with a handful of AAVSO observers getting exactly the right data, at the right time, right away!

Nova Delphini 2013: The story so far

Nova Delphini 2013 (also named V339 Del) is the biggest cosmic event in variable star astronomy this year, and this naked-eye nova is providing the community a wealth of new data on this important class of objects.  The amateur astronomical community has made an enormous contribution of data for Nova Del so far, and now is a good time to review all that's happened so far in this nova outburst, and how the amateur community has played a role.

AAVSO observers help solve a mystery about an important variable star

A group of astronomers led by Dr. James Miller-Jones of Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research have published a revised distance to the famed variable star SS Cygni, solving a major mystery surrounding this star and its behavior.  Their work was made possible due to the dedication of dozens of observers worldwide who monitor SS Cygni and report their observations to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).

Alert Notice 483: AH Her Observing Campaign

May 17, 2013: AAVSO assistance has been requested by Dr. Juan Echevarria (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) and colleagues in a campaign on the Z Cam-type cataclysmic variable AH Her being carried out 2013 May 29 - June 18. They will be making photometric and spectroscopic observations of AH Her using the 2.1m and 0.84m telescopes at San Pedro Martir Observatory (SPM).

Special Notice #316: Monitoring of the dwarf nova U Geminorum in support of HST observations

December 17, 2012: The AAVSO requests enhanced nightly monitoring of the dwarf nova U Gem in support of target-of-opportunity observations with HST's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. These observations were requested by Dr.