What Happens to a Variable Star Observation after You Send It to the AAVSO?

You make a variable star observation and you want to send it to the AAVSO. How do you do that, and what happens to your observation after you send it? How does someone obtain your observation to use it in their research or article?

How do you send it?

You have three main choices of how to send it: through the AAVSO website, in an email message, or on paper. If you send it through the AAVSO website, the program you use is WebObs. If you send it in an email message, you write the observation in a certain format - AAVSO format. If you send it on paper, you use an AAVSO report form so the format is correct and all the information we need is included.

What happens after you send it?

A prolific AAVSO observer, Msgr. Ronald Royer, at his Royer Oaks Observatory

However you send your observation to the AAVSO, if it is the first time you are submitting observations to the AAVSO, you will be assigned AAVSO Observer Initials. These are usually 3 or 4 letters that identify you, and only you, in the AAVSO International Database. We try to assign initials based on the first letter of your last name, first name, and middle initial. If that combination has already been used, we come as close as we can, but your initials will always start with the first letter of your last name.

If you use WebObs, your observation is automatically put online with other observations sent electronically to the AAVSO in the recent few weeks. Within 10 minutes, people may look at it online either as text or in a light curve (a graph of brightness versus time for a star).

If you use email, an automated software robot (in a program we wrote) looks at your observation for errors. If it finds any, it sends the observation back and tells you what is wrong. After you fix it and re-submit it, it looks at the observation again. If there are no errors, it puts the observation online with the other observations sent electronically, and people may look at it in the same ways as with WebObs.

If you use paper, you send your observations once a month, after the end of the month in which you made your observations. Your observations are digitized (typed into the computer) by a data entry technician at AAVSO Headquarters during the month.

How does someone obtain your observation for research, illustrations, etc.?

Anyone who needs AAVSO data for a project may obtain them, as long as their project is honest and honorable. We do not charge for the use of AAVSO data. We do ask how AAVSO data are going to be used, and we reserve the right not to give AAVSO data to someone we believe may not use the data honorably.

Click image to enlarge.
Amateurs contributed data for these satellites

A person may obtain data (including your observation) by sending an email or a letter to the AAVSO and asking for data on a star for a particular interval. S/he may also obtain them by going to the AAVSO website, looking to see what is available, and filling out a short form to request the data on a star for a particular interval. If the data requested have been validated, they are made available to the requestor immediately for downloading. If they have not been validated, the request is sent automatically to a specialist in data requests at AAVSO Headquarters, who validates the data and sends them to the requestor.What does "validated" mean? It means that each observation has been looked at by a specialist at AAVSO Headquarters to make sure that it agrees with other observers' observations of that star at that time. If it agrees, a special code is put on it that allows it to be sent out automatically when it is requested. If it disagrees by more than a certain amount, a code is put on it so it is not sent out. It may still be looked at on the AAVSO website, however.