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News and Announcements

AAVSO CCD School February 8, 2012 - 1:48pm

The AAVSO will be holding a week-long "CCD School" from July 30 through August 3, 2012.  The school will take place at Tufts University, located a couple of miles from AAVSO HQ.  The school is designed for those who have some experience with a CCD system, and who want to learn how to take professional-quality data.

Alert Notice 452: Simultaneous observations of SU Aur and AB Aur requested for XMM-Newton February 8, 2012 - 12:01pm

8 February 2012:  Dr. Hans Moritz Guenther, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has requested bracketing and simultaneous observations in support of XMM-Newton x-ray observations of the classical T Tauri star SU Aur and the close-by Herbig Ae star AB Aur scheduled for February 15 - 17, 2012. The targets are too bright to use the XMM optical monitor for simultaneous monitoring, so your observing assistance is essential for correlation of the x-ray data.

Accounting Clerk Wanted for p/t Position at AAVSO HQ February 7, 2012 - 5:14pm

Long-Term Optical and Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Monitoring of epsilon Aurigea During the 2009-11 Eclipse February 6, 2012 - 11:52am

http://www.citizensky.org/forum/long-term-optical-and-near-infrared-spectroscopic-monitoring-epsilon-aurigea-during-2009-11-ec

AAVSO Newsletter 51 is now online February 3, 2012 - 3:57pm

AAVSO Newsletter 51, January 2012, is now online.

http://www.aavso.org/aavso-newsletter

2013 Spring Meeting Site Proposals Wanted February 1, 2012 - 7:56pm

The AAVSO is accepting proposals to host our 2013 "spring" meeting. Typically these meetings are held away from our HQ in Cambridge, MA sometime in the months of April-July. For the first time, we are experimenting with the process of accepting open suggestions and bids for the location of our next unplanned meeting (2012 will be in Big Bear, CA).

Charts and Sequences Update January 2012 January 29, 2012 - 9:43am

There are over 100 new and revised charts and sequences since the last update in November. Many of these are for stars in the newly formed YSO Section Program, southern stars with new photometry from APASS and campaign targets. The rest are revisions based on issues reported to CHET and requests for new sequences from our observers.

Alert Notice 451: Monitoring of the Symbiotic Variable RT Cru Requested January 27, 2012 - 6:40pm

January 27, 2012: The symbiotic variable RT Cru has brightened in hard x-rays. Dr. Jeno Sokoloski, Columbia University, has requested AAVSO assistance in monitoring RT Cru both now and in the future to see if it is doing anything unusual in the optical. The Swift/BAT hard X-ray light curve shows RT Cru has apparently been gradually brightening over the past few years.  

William Tyler Olcott Mentioned in Norwich Bulletin January 27, 2012 - 9:28am

The Norwich Bulletin, of Norwich, Ct., published an article about AAVSO co-founder William Tyler Olcott in their blog focused on the history of the town.  It includes interesting tidbits about Mr. Olcott, references to the AAVSO and proposals for ways to commemorate him.

Click here to read the story.

Join us for an online chat on Thursday Jan. 26 January 25, 2012 - 5:36pm

Various AAVSO staff will be in the AAVSO Chat Room on Thursday, January 26. Stop by to chat with other AAVSOers and staff.

Click here to join!

Visual Observing Manual in Hungarian January 23, 2012 - 11:29am

Thanks to the hard work, dedication, and persistence(!) of AAVSO member/observer Péter Molnár and Dr. László Kiss, the January 2010 edition of the "Manual for Visual Observing of Variable Stars" is now available in Hungarian.

http://www.aavso.org/visual-observing-manual-hungarian

If you know of anyone who may benefit from this translation, please spread the word!

Special Notice #264: SUPERNOVA 2012A IN NGC 3239 = PSN J10250739+1709146 January 21, 2012 - 8:05pm

January 21, 2012:  In IAU Central Bureau Electronic Telegram 2974 (Daniel W. E. Green, ed.), B. Moore, J. Newton, and T. Puckett report the discovery of an apparent supernova in the irregular galaxay NGC 3239 at unfiltered magnitude 14.6 taken with a 0.40-m reflector at Portal, AZ, on 2012 Jan. 7.3869 UT in the course of the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search. SN 2012A was confirmed by Puckett at magnitude 14.4 on Jan. 8.3352; nothing is visible down to magnitude 19.0 on his images from 2011 Dec. 29.

New eJAAVSO preprint: "New Light Curve for the 1909 Outburst of RT Ser" by G, Luberda and W. Osborn January 20, 2012 - 2:34pm

ej153: New Light Curve for the 1909 Outburst of RT Serpentis

http://www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New Tool to Opt Out of E-Mails January 18, 2012 - 5:05pm

Occasionally the AAVSO may send e-mail updates about organization activities to its members and observers. Example activities are the publication of our quarterly newsletter, meeting announcements, etc. On average these e-mails are sent about once every month or two.

We have a new way for you to opt out of receiving these e-mails. Simply visit the URL below and click the “Opt-Out” button.

http://www.aavso.org/apps/email/

The American Meteor Society Also Celebrates 100 Years January 16, 2012 - 10:20pm

The AAVSO is not the only citizen science organization that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. The American Meteor Society also celebrated it's anniversary. As a token of friendship and appreciation, we sent a certificate mounted on a wooden plaque to Dr. Meisel, Executive Director the AMS. Below is a image of the certificate portion of the plaque. Click for a larger PDF version.

Congrats to the AMS!

Solar Bulletin - Volume 67, No. 12 January 16, 2012 - 10:58am

The December 2011 Solar Bulletin is now available.

New Visual Observing Manual in Chinese January 11, 2012 - 12:36pm

Thanks to the efforts of Cheng Simiao, a young and very enthusiastic observer from Beijing, we now have a new, more up-to-date Chinese version of the "Manual for Visual Observing of Variable Stars" available for download. He wishes that this edition be thought of as a 100th birthday present to the AAVSO as well as an 18th birthday gift to himself.

Congratulations and many thanks to Mr. Cheng!

Light Curve Generator Upgrades December 29, 2011 - 2:50pm

Some work has been done recently to the AAVSO's Light Curve Generator.

Three additional filters, the Tri-R, Tri-G, and Tri-B filters, primarily used in DSLR work, were added to the data that the Light Curve Generator can now display. This should be of great use to people monitoring bright variable stars with cameras, among others.

The AAVSO Computer History Project December 20, 2011 - 1:37pm

Welcome to the AAVSO Computer History Project

 

The purpose of this project is to document the history of the Information Technology Infrastructure of the AAVSO, how it came to be, what hardware was used, who were the people involved, and how the technology was used to further the mission of variable star observing and analysis.

Data Usage Reports are available again December 20, 2011 - 10:00am

We are happy to announce that after a few months of testing, the AAVSO's Data Usage Reports are now available to all observers again.  You may subscribe to these weekly reports by visiting this page:

http://www.aavso.org/apps/email/

2012 JD Calendar December 19, 2011 - 11:22am

The 2012 JD Calendar is now available.

Just go to the JD Calendar page and scroll down to the bottom where you will be able to view or download the new calendar.

Happy observing!

Solar Bulletin - Volume 67, No. 11 December 16, 2011 - 12:48pm

The November Solar Bulletin  is now available.

Special Notice #263: SUPERNOVA 2011iy IN NGC 4984 = PSN J13085839-1531041 December 15, 2011 - 12:10pm

December 15, 2011:  IAU CBAT Central Bureau Electronic Telegram 2943 (Daniel W. E. Green, Ed.) announces the discovery of an apparent supernova in NGC 4984 by Koichi Itagaki, Yamagata, Japan, at unfiltered CCD magnitude 12.7 on 2011 Dec. 9.856 UT.

Coordinates: R.A. = 13 08 58.39  Decl. = -15 31 04.1 (2000.0)
SN 2011iy is 16.6" east and 6.1" south of the nucleus of NGC 4984.    

Two AAVSO members team up to answer a young boy's dream December 12, 2011 - 3:36pm

The News Sun in Sebring, FL. published an article titled "Opening the Universe" about AAVSO members Chris Stephan and Gordon Myers work to support an autistic student's love of astronomy. Read the full article at the URL below!

http://www.newssun.com/news/112011-ct-telescope

New VSP upgrades December 6, 2011 - 11:42am

We held another VSP workday this week and tackled a few VSP bugs and feature requests. Most of the changes are minor and I'll list them below. We did not get to everything on the list. Our next workday will probably be in a couple of months. Feel free to submit feature requests or bug reports to aavso at aavso.org.

As always, thanks to Michael Koppelman and Chris Watson for taking time out of their day to help us!

AAVSO 49 Bay State Rd. Cambridge, MA 02138 aavso@aavso.org 617-354-0484