News and Announcements
| 10 August | JAAVSO Call for Papers for Special epsilon Aurigae Issue |
CALL FOR PAPERSfor a special edition of the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers dedicated to epsilon Aurigae, similar objects and amateur observing techniques of bright stars. |
| 09 August | Alert Notice 444: Nova Lupi 2011 |
Nova Lupi 2011 |
| 08 August | Special Notice #247: Possible Nova in Lupus |
Possible Nova in Lupus
The coordinates are: 14 54 20 -55 05 03 J2000 |
| 06 August | Special Notice #246: Continued Monitoring of epsilon Aurigae |
August 8, 2011: The bright star epsilon Aurigae has emerged from its most recent eclipse that began in August, 2009. A BVRIJH light curve for the last 365 days of the eclipse can be viewed at the following URL. |
| 04 August | Eclipses During the 2010 Eruption of the Recurrent Nova U Scorpii |
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| 28 July | Effects of dust on light-curves of ε Aur type stars (updated) |
100728 Update: Dr. Budaj has offered a short description of the paper with a nice illustration, which can be read via the Citizen Sky forums. The following is an abstract for a paper recently been posted to ArXiv (and accepted for publication in A&A Letters). The paper is based on your AAVSO observations of apsilon Aurigae and acknowledges AAVSO support. |
| 25 July | New Online Forum: Getting Started with the AAVSO | |
| 21 July | Visual Estimate Experiment | |
| 19 July | AAVSO Newsletter 49 now online |
AAVSO Newsletter 49, July 2011, is now online. |
| 19 July | Week of Online Chats for Beginners: July 25-29 |
We will be hosting three online chat sessions for beginners to the AAVSO during the week of July 25, 2011. Below are the list of the chat topics. However, feel free to bring up any topic at any chat. The chat room can be accessed by pointing your browser here. Details about how to use dedicated chat clients are here. |
| 19 July | AAVSO 100th Annual Meeting |
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| 19 July | Pro-Am White dwarf Monitoring (PAWM) Pilot Project |
Bruce Gary has announced a one-month pilot project to evaluate the feasibility of observing exoplanet transits of white dwarfs. The advantage of looking at white dwarfs is that the eclipses will be deeper. The disadvantage is they will be very short (on the order of minutes). So there is considerable challenge here! |
| 11 July | The Chart Error Reporting Tool (CHET) is back online | |
| 08 July | AAVSO Alert Notice 443: Long-term monitoring of four AGN in support of ground-based spectroscopy |
[Edited 2011 July 12 to indicate that the apertures and annuli are radii rather than diameters. -- M. Templeton, AAVSO] |
| 08 July | Delta Scorpii: el nacimiento de una estrella Be |
This is also available in English Las estrellas BeEl estadio Be no es sólo una etapa evolutiva en las vidas de algunas estrellas calientes de tipo B de rápida rotación sino también un fenómeno transitorio que puede ir y venir con el paso de los años en la misma estrella. Varias razones se han propuesto para explicar el comportamiento de estas estrellas y aun están en debate. |
| 07 July | Delta Scorpii: the birth of a Be star |
The Be starsBe-ness is not only an evolutionary stage in the lives of some rapidly rotating hot B-type stars but also a transient phenomenon that may come and go over the years for the same star. Several reasons have been proposed to explain the behavior of these stars and are still in debate. |
| 07 July | Charts and Sequences Update July 2011 |
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| 06 July | Variable Star iPhone App Now Free |
The Variables Stars and AstroClock iPhone apps are now available for free. Thanks, Diatom software! |
| 05 July | Arne Henden Receives Leslier C. Peltier Award |
Arne Henden received the Leslier C. Peltier Award from the Astronomical League last weekend at their annual meeting in Utah. Click here for Sky & Telescope's coverage of the meeting. Arne joins fellow AAVSO staffer Elizabeth Waagen and current member/observer Gerry Samolyk as past winners. |
| 30 June | AAVSO Special Notice #244: Continued close monitoring of T Pyx requested |
Continued close monitoring of T Pyx requested |
| 29 June | Variable Star Astronomy TOC in Belorussian |
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| 28 June | New eJAAVSO: Light Curve of the Eccentric Eclipsing Binary GSC 3152-1202, by R. K. Buchheim |
Abstract A complete light curve of this eccentric (~2.094d) eclipsing binary system has been determined, in B, V, and R bands. The primary and secondary minima are slightly different in depth, and the color index does not change during either primary or secondary eclipse. Newly-determined times of minimum confirm the previously-suspected rapid change in the orbital phase of the secondary minimum, implying significant apsidal motion. |
| 28 June | Minor VSP upgrades |
Hi, all. Today we rolled out some relatively minor upgrades to VSP. There is nothing groundbreaking here. It's mostly minor tweaks and bug fixes. But I'm outlining them here for your information: Additions |
| 24 June | New eJAAVSO: The Ross Variable Stars Revisited. I. by W. Osborn, O. F. Mills |
Abstract Better magnitudes and epochs have been determined for 189 of the 379 confirmed and suspected variable stars discovered by Ross from 1925 to 1931. Accurate positions have been determined for those objects for which unambiguous identifications had been lacking. |
| 15 June | New Observing Section Created to study Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) |
Michael Poxon has taken it upon himself to head a new AAVSO section on his favorite class of variable star: Pre-Main Sequence Stars (YSO/PMS). The AAVSO has had a long history of working with such objects, especially the "Orion variables" that were monitored by many visual observers for years. |
Galina Miklosic has recently 
