LPV Circular Launched!

One of the new initiatives of the LPV Section for 2012 is the LPV Circular.

This is an email you can receive each Wednesday listing all the Mira and Semi-regular variable stars that have observations submitted to the AAVSO International Database in the last 30 days. The circular application calculates the mean visual magnitude of all the observations for each day and lists the observer codes of those observers who supplied data for the prior 30 day period.

At the end of the circular is a key to the observer codes, so you can tell who everyone is.

You can subscribe to the LPV Circular here, or simply read the posts when they come out each Wednesday.

Some of the potential uses for this circualr are:

1-You can see at a glance which stars are getting lots of coverage and which stars are not.
2-You can scan the circular for stars to add to your LPV Observing Program.
3-You can see who is observing which stars and how often. We have some superstar observers. Do you know who they are? Do you want to be one? Well, here you can check out the competition.
4-You can quickly find errors in the data and contact your friends or the AAVSO staff to bring these to our attention. This will help clean up the data, and may help you teach newer observers what to look out for.
5- By getting familiar with the stars and observers in the circular you can become part of the observer community we hope to foster in the coming years.

The LPV Section is making a concerted effort to bring back the fun and excitement of observing Long Period Variable Stars, and we plan to create a place and an atmosphere where the visual observing community knows they are valued and appreciated and can share in their love of the stars and the art of variable star observing. 

The LPV Circular is just the first of several new initiatives and campaigns we plan to launch this year. So join in and stay tuned. We've just begun!