News and Announcements

Two new eJAAVSO preprints: on RR Lyr stars and on Digital Archiving May 25, 2012 - 10:00am

(ej191): "Digital Archiving: Where the Past Lives Again" by K. B. Paxson

(ej190): "RR Lyrae Stars: Cosmic Lighthouses With a Twist" by K. Kolenberg

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

2012 Spring Director's Report Now Online! May 24, 2012 - 11:05am

The 2012 Spring Director's Report presented during the AAVSO Meeting held in Big Bear, CA, was recorded and is now online to download and view.

Please click here to download the video. When unzipped it is an .wmv file which, with appropriate software, will be viewable on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux systems.

Two new eJAAVSO preprints: on symbiotic stars and on RS Gru May 24, 2012 - 9:03am

(ej189): "Symbiotic Stars" by U. Munari

(ej188): "The Pulsational Behavior of the High Amplitude d Scuti Star RS Gruis" by J. R. García

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

Special Notice #283: Supernova 2012cg IN NGC 4424 = PSN J12271283+0925132 May 23, 2012 - 2:52pm

May 23, 2012: IAU Central Bureau Electronic Telegram 3111 (Daniel W. E. Green, ed.) announces the LOSS discovery (reported by M. Kandrashoff, S. B. Cenko, W. Li, and A. V. Filippenko) of a supernova in NGC 4424 on 2012 May 17.22 at unfiltered magnitude 16.9.

Spectra indicating the object to be a Type Ia supernova discovered about two weeks before maximum were obtained by:

Spring 2012 Director's Report to be broadcast online! May 22, 2012 - 6:56pm

Join us on Wednesday, May 23rd at approximately 7:15pm Pacific/10:15pm Eastern/2:15 UT for Arne Henden's Director's Report. On the heels of the very successful "Astro-April" series of webinar broadcasts for the Citizen Sky celebration and as part of the Spring 2012 Meeting being held jointly with SAS in Big Bear, California we are using GoToWebinar to broadcast Arne's talk.

Click here any time between now and the talk to register for the broadcast. (Mac or Windows)

Special Notice #282: Apparent fading of V854 Cen May 21, 2012 - 10:59pm

May 21, 2012: The R CrB star V854 Cen appears to be fading from maximum, according to recent observations reported to the AAVSO:

2012 May 17.1313 UT, 7.2 (B. Cudnik, Houston, TX);
17.380, 7.4 (P. Williams, Heathcote, NSW, Australia);
17.5069, 7.3 (D. Leys, Warrimoo, NSW, Australia);
17.5181, 7.4 (A. Plummer, Linden, NSW, Australia);
18.2125, 7.4 (Cudnik);
18.4917, 7.4 (Plummer);
19.1458, 7.5 (Cudnik);
19.3264, 7.35 (M. Linnolt, Ocean View, HI);

New eJAAVSO preprint: Observations of Cataclysmic, RR Lyr, and High Amplitude d Scuti (HADS) Variable Stars May 21, 2012 - 10:29am

(ej187): "Intensive Observations of Cataclysmic, RR Lyr, and High Amplitude d Scuti (HADS) Variable Stars" by F. Hambsch

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: Adverse Health Effects of Nighttime Lighting May 15, 2012 - 4:26pm

(ej186): "Adverse Health Effects of Nighttime Lighting" by M. Motta

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

Special Notice #281: Revised timetable for AE Aqr MAGIC observations May 15, 2012 - 12:53am

15 May 2012: Dr. Christopher Mauche, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has informed us that the timetable of MAGIC telescope observations of the intermediate polar cataclysmic variable AE Aqr announced in AAVSO Alert Notice 458 has been revised. Here is the revised timetable for the dates in May and early June:

2012 May
16, 3:30 - 4:49 UT
17, 3:21 - 4:49
18, 3:17 - 4:49
19, 3:13 - 4:47
20, 3:09 - 3:53
21, 3:06 - 3:49

New eJAAVSO preprint: on RASNZ-VSS and Variable Stars South May 14, 2012 - 10:32am

(ej185): "The RASNZ Variable Star Section and Variable Stars South" by A. Jones and S. Walker

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

Two new eJAAVSO preprints: on Clint Ford; on BAA-VSS history May 11, 2012 - 10:10am

(ej183): "An Appreciation of Clinton B. Ford and the AAVSO of Fifty Years Ago" by T. Hull

(ej184): "British Astronomical Association Variable Star Section, 1890–2011" by J. Toone

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

Alert Notice 458: Multiwavelength observing campaign on AE Aqr May 11, 2012 - 5:58am

NOTE: Table of MAGIC observations revised 14 and 15 May 2012 per Dr. Christopher Mauche.

New eJAAVSO preprint: On the usefulness of Type Ia Supernovae May 10, 2012 - 1:34pm

(ej182): "The Usefulness of Type Ia Supernovae for Cosmology—A Personal Review" by K. Krisciunas

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: on Frank Elmore Ross May 10, 2012 - 10:34am

(ej181): "Frank Elmore Ross and His Variable Star Discoveries" by W. Osborn

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: Progress Report for Adapting APASS Data Releases for the Calibration of Harvard Plates May 10, 2012 - 10:02am

(ej180): "Progress Report for Adapting APASS Data Releases for the Calibration of Harvard Plates" by E. Los

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: The Visual Era of the AAVSO EB Program May 9, 2012 - 3:55pm

(ej179): "The Visual Era of the AAVSO Eclipsing Binary Program" by D. B. Williams, M. E. Baldwin, G. Samolyk

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

Special Notice #280: HST UV spectroscopy observations of S Dor scheduled May 9, 2012 - 1:05pm

May 9, 2012: We have been informed by Dr. Noel Richardson, Georgia State University, that the UV spectroscopy observations of S Dor to be made with the Hubble Space Telescope have been scheduled for

2012 MAY 11 from 21:21:55 UT to 23:55:04 UT.

Special Notice #279: Request for monitoring of SS Cygni in support of European VLBI radio observations May 8, 2012 - 11:04am

7 May 2012: As mentioned in AAVSO Alert Notice 445 in August 2011 and AAVSO Special Notice #258 in October 2011, Dr.

New eJAAVSO preprint: The “Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren” of Belgium May 4, 2012 - 4:33pm

(ej178): "The “Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren” of Belgium" by P. Wils, E. Broens, H. Hautecler, F. Van Loo

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: Interferometry and the Cepheid Distance Scale May 4, 2012 - 4:23pm

(ej177): "Interferometry and the Cepheid Distance Scale" by T. G. Barnes, III

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

GET API access to Variable Star Database May 4, 2012 - 1:58pm

The Variable Star Database (VSD) is the collection of comparison stars plotted with our Variable Star Plotter (VSP). We have created an API for the public to query the VSD and get back photometry on those comparison stars. This is basically the same data shown in the "photometry table" option of VSP, except it is in a delimited format easily parsed by automated software. In other words, you can use this format for your own scripts/software/etc.

New eJAAVSO preprint: on Variable Star Observers May 4, 2012 - 9:18am

(ej176): "Variable Star Observers I Have Known" by C. E. Scovil

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: on Helen Sawyer Hogg May 4, 2012 - 9:01am

(ej175): "The Stars Belong to Everyone: Astronomer and Science Writer Helen Sawyer Hogg (1905–1993)" by M. J. Cahill

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: on Classical Cepheids May 3, 2012 - 4:15pm

(ej174): "Classical Cepheids After 228 Years of Study" by D. G. Turner

www.aavso.org/ejaavso

New eJAAVSO preprint: on Joel Stebbins May 3, 2012 - 3:36pm

(ej173): "Illinois—Where Astronomical Photometry Grew Up" by B. B. Beaman and M. T. Svec