RCB

The AAVSO Circulars – See what’s been happening in the night sky as you plan your observing program!

The AAVSO has numerous observing aids designed to help you make the most efficient use of your valuable observing time. Each Observing Section and each mode of observing has a variety of resources – be sure to visit these pages and explore the links. The best place to start is the "Observing at a Glance – for Observers" page (https://www.aavso.org/observers).

Suggested Observing Cadences for Variable Star Types

Something you need to consider carefully, and a question that comes up often with new observers is "How often should I observe my program stars?" The answers depend largely on the type of stars you are observing. The following table is a general guideline. As you learn more about the different types of variables, and the personalities of some of the specific stars you choose to observe, you may decide to observe them more or less often than suggested here.

Alert Notice 456: Monitoring of V854 Cen Requested

April 4, 2012: Bram Ochsendorf (Leiden Observatory, Netherlands) has requested monitoring by AAVSO observers of the R CrB variable V854 Cen in support of observations to be made using the XSHOOTER instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile. Ochsendorf and colleagues have already observed V854 Cen at maximum and now need to observe it during a fading episode.