AAVSO Press Release sent via the AAS

Contact: Prof. Lynn Cominsky
lynnc@universe.sonoma.edu
(707) 664-2655

Dr. Arne Henden
arne@aavso.org
(617)354-0484
25 Birch St
Cambridge MA 02138 USA

Scientists and amateur astronomers will team up at a meeting in New Mexico from March 21-23, 2005, to discuss how the stargazing public can provide significant contributions to the study of exotic star explosions, blazing galaxies and gamma-ray bursts.

Members of the news media are welcome to attend free of charge. Refer to the meeting Web site for background information at http://www.aavso.org/aavso/meetings/hea3.shtml. To register, contact the AAVSO at meetings@aavso.org.

The meeting underscores how the face of amateur astronomy has changed radically in recent years, with the backyard telescope now complemented by near real-time imagery and data from world-class observatories available freely to anyone with an Internet connection.

The meeting is entitled "The 3rd High-Energy Astrophysics Workshop for Amateur Astronomers," to be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The meeting is sponsored by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), New Mexico State University, NASA, Sonoma State University, and the Curry Foundation.

"We are broadening our wavelength horizons," said Dr. Arne Henden, AAVSO Director. "No longer is amateur astronomy limited to the visible waveband and what we can see from our backyards. Amateur astronomers have a unique opportunity to help professional astronomers capture and analyze fleeting events, such as a gamma-ray burst, which can disappear in less than a minute."

Last month, for example, a flaring neutron star became the brightest object ever seen from beyond the Solar System. Amateur astronomers were on top of this, Henden said, and supplied the "pros" with valuable information about how gamma rays from the explosion interacted with the Earth's atmosphere.

The three-day meeting, in conjunction with AAVSO's 94th Spring Meeting on March 25-26, comprises a combination of talks and workshops led by NASA and university-based astronomers. A tour of the Very Large Array radio observatory, popularized in the movie Contact, is planned for March 24.

Discussions at the meeting concern major astronomy tools available to the public, such as the Global Telescope Network and the Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network (GCN), as well as primers on basic "high-energy" astronomy. The GCN is an online resource that alerts the astronomy community about gamma-ray bursts, so that scientists and amateurs around the world can turn their telescopes toward the event to view the burst afterglow. The newly launched NASA Swift satellite is one of many observatories plugged in to the GCN.

"We expect amateur astronomers to make many contributions to the Swift and GLAST missions," said Prof. Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University, press officer for Swift, which launched in November 2004. GLAST, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, is a NASA observatory with major contributions from the U.S. Department of Energy, Europe and Japan, planned for a 2007 launch.

The AAVSO, founded in 1911, is a non-profit, scientific organization with members in 46 countries. It coordinates, compiles, digitizes and disseminates observations on stars that change in brightness (variable stars) to researchers and educators worldwide. Its International High Energy Network was created with cooperation from NASA. Visit the Web site at http://www.aavso.org.