Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thu, 08/22/2019 - 23:41

Fellow LPV Observers, 

I'm looking for ways to improve the LPV section. 

Please let me know what you'd like to see? 

What content are you lookng for? 

What challeges can we help solve? 

Feel free to post here or DM me. 

If you want to chat and give me an earful, I'm all for it and will DM you my phone number. 

Thank for the help, 

Rich (RRIA) 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
LPV Section

Hi Rich,

I would like to see the return of publication of the annual Bulletin. A few have posted their disappointment with its cancellation,and others have offered or have provided alternate sources to get similar info (see: https://www.aavso.org/aavso-bulletin-%E2%84%9682). There are more efficient ways to produce the Bulletin, and it would take a couple of volunteers to make that happen. I can lend a hand, but I'mnot sure of the better ways to do it. I thought was to take the history of Bulletin star magnitudes from WebObs and run the data through Persano to get the next Minima and Maxima.

Michael 
CMJA

Affiliation
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren (Belgium) (VVS)
Improvement

Hi Rich, does it needs improvement? I like it like it is. 

Affiliation
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren (Belgium) (VVS)
All

It's all good to me. A lot of information, how to start, what is a LPV, .... etc. In the beginning I was also missing the bulletin but that is no longer the point. Just observe.

I think the website is not the source to get more observers observe LPV's.  The problem is that there are not many LPV observer these days,are the huge amount of other objects within reach of the amateur.

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
I don't know why the number

I don't know why the number of observers are decreasing, because many LPVs have interesting behavior and are perfect targets for visual observers. Maybe we are not "selling good enough our product" . For example,my LPVs page on FB don't works as well as i expected.

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
I think about this a lot. FB

I think about this a lot. FB is good for sharing content, but most peole on FB are looking for either quick hitting content or pictures, not in depth analysis. LPVs don't have the immediancy factor of a nova or an RCB fade. I share stuff from you LPV page to my local astronomy club's facebook page all the time. Between that and my presentations, I think everyone in Virginia Beach knows way more about variable stars than they ever wanted to. 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Hi Rich,

Hi Rich,

I would second bringing back the bulletin would be great.

Regards 

Steve Toothman TST

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Working on it. Currently

Working on it. Currently engaging with HQ to figure out what resources are going to be required. Then will need to solicit a team of volunteers to take it on. I think we can make it happen due to the value the bulletin provides. 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
LPV section

The annual bulletin would be appreciated, I found it very useful at the beginning of my observing activity.

It would be interesting to develop some small observing projects like LPV Humps, to stimulate observers on specific targets. Also the LPV of the season subsection is a very intersting one and it could be a useful starting point for new observers. I'm not very active as an observer but I would try to lend an hand if needed.

Simon (SSIM)

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
BSM

Also starting to explore how to tie BSM into the LPV section. BSM can give visual guys (like myself) who don't want to spend a lot of money on photometry equipment a means to gather color data on stars. We may look for a project we can do utilizing BSM and write up how to go about it. Frank used the BSM to confirm S Ori was actually a humper and then took it forward from there. 

Affiliation
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren (Belgium) (VVS)
No visual

I frequently go along different forums. In all these newbie sections I always (or very often) read reply from new observers and it is always the same: they want to take astro pictures and don't want to observe visualy. These days it is very simple to take at a low cost a good picture of the skies. And often these new observers even don't know the heavens like most of us know it. I have starhopped more than 30.000 visual observations of variable stars. Starhop? What is that? Most newbies even can't find Polaris but they all can take nice photo's of DSO's. Not every one ofcourse but I see it happen a lot. 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
No visual...no problem

I still prefer visual observing, and fought this creeping change in our hobby for years, until I realized the story of the automobile. Our grandfathers rode horses, knew their horse's every twitch, and every stretch of trail they frequented. Faced with a new territory, they had the skills to figure out that area too (or a new horse).

Then the auto came along and all that was lost...

But, I can drive further in a couple days than he ever rode in a lifetime. I thoroughly agree newbies need to learn the sky, but they aren't going to learn it on a horse. We have to provide a way to learn it with the vehicle they use.

PS don't get me started about self driving cars.

Brad

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Cloudy Nights website

LPVs occasionally appear in the Observational Astrophysics section of the Cloudy Nights website.  I would recommend posting updates about the more exciting LPV behavior there from time to time.  Such would not, perhaps, be likely to draw in many new observers, but it would not be an endeavor that would take a lot of work, and luring even a few observers into the field would be worthwhile. -- Horace

 

Anonymous (not verified)
Cloudy Nights website

You make an absolutely true observation (no pun intended) of the Observational Astrophysics pages. That is where I got the bug to pursue photometry, and that is where I found my AAVSO mentor. Still developing my skills but am completely fullfilled with this activity.

Jamey