The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (JAAVSO), Volume 39, Number 2, 2011, is now available for downloading and for hardcopy purchase.
News and Announcements
| 15 December | Special Notice #263: SUPERNOVA 2011iy IN NGC 4984 = PSN J13085839-1531041 |
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. |
| 12 December | Two AAVSO members team up to answer a young boy's dream |
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| 06 December | New VSP upgrades |
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! |
| 05 December | Shopping on Amazon.com |
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| 05 December | Year End Giving |
Tis the season |
| 02 December | JAAVSO v39, n2, is published |
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| 30 November | Solar Observer Celebrated in Local Paper |
Solar observer Ernest Richardson was recently given the AAVSO Solar Award, which was covered in a story by the Thorne and District Gazette newspaper titled "Swinton starman receives top award ". Read the article here. |
| 30 November | New results on FS Aurigae |
The paper "Optical and X-ray Variability of the Peculiar Cataclysmic Variable FS Aurigae with a Magnetic and Freely Precessing White Dwarf" by Vitaly Neustroev and collaborators is now available on arXiv.org. The paper was co-authored by several AAVSO observers, and involves data taken during the 2010-2011 observing campaign. |
| 29 November | Advancing Variable Star Astronomy available as a Kindle e-book |
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| 29 November | RASC Publishes David Levy's Log Books Online |
The RASC has just published a digital copy of David Levy's personal log books in PDF format: |
| 22 November | Meet Donna Young |
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| 20 November | Chat Transcript w/AAVSO President Dr. Mario Motta |
Update: The chat is over, but a transcript of the chat is available here. |
| 17 November | Charts and Sequences Update November 2011 |
Dear AAVSO Observers, |
| 09 November | Please Take Our Demographic Survey |
We are conducting a survey to learn more about the demographics of our members, observers and anyone affiliated with or interested in the AAVSO. Information may be used for purposes such as making strategic plans for the AAVSO, writing grant applications, planning observing campaigns, writing papers about our membership, etc. Identifiable survey data will never be shared with anyone outside of the AAVSO. |
| 07 November | ArXiv Preprint: Multiwavelength Campaign of Observations of AE Aqr |
Longtime friend of the AAVSO, Dr. Chris Mauche (Lawrence Livermore National Lab), has published a paper about AE Aqr in which he uses data from AAVSO observations. It was submitted for inclusion in the proceedings of the conference "The Golden Age of CVs and Related Objects".
The ArXiv link to the black/white paper is here.
But you can download the color paper directly here. The abstract: |
| 04 November | New eJAAVSO preprint: Periodicity Analysis of the Semiregular Variable Star EV Aquarii, by E. Terziev, J. R. Percy, A. A. Henden |
ej152: Periodicity Analysis of the Semiregular Variable Star |
| 02 November | Special Notice #262: Long-term monitoring of AGN targets extended |
November 2, 2011: The observing campaign described in AAVSO Alert Notice 443 (M. Templeton) has been extended through the end of November 2011. One of the original targets, NGC 6814, has been removed from the target list for the remainder of the campaign. |
| 02 November | Modern observations of Hubble's first-discovered Cepheid in M31 |
The paper "Modern observations of Hubble's first-discovered Cepheid in M31" has been accepted for publication to PASP, and is now available on arXiv.org. |
| 28 October | AAVSO Newsletter 50 now online |
AAVSO Newsletter 50, October 2011, is now online. |
| 25 October | Alert Notice 450: Request for observations of SDSS J080434.20+510349.2 in support of HST observations |
October 25, 2011: Dr. Paula Szkody (University of Washington) has requested the help of AAVSO observers in monitoring the WZ Sge-type cataclysmic variable SDSS J080434.20+510349.2 (SDSS0804+51) in support of Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet spectroscopic observations scheduled for 20:52:40 - 23:32:35 2011 November 3 UT (the night of Wednesday, November 2/3) (JD 2455869.36991-.48096). Nightly observations are requested beginning immediately and continuing through November 30. |
| 25 October | Alert Notice 449: Outburst of the UGWZ Candidate BW Scl |
October 25, 2011 |
| 24 October | Reminder: Observing Challenges End Soon! | |
| 21 October | Special Notice #261: Outburst of the UGWZ Candidate BW Scl |
The short period cataclysmic variable BW Scl appears to be in outburst. The object was detected in outburst at m(vis)=9.6 by M. Linnolt on 2011 October 21.3146 (JD 2455855.8146), and confirmed by A. Plummer at m(vis)=9.4 on October 21.3424. Observations of this object are encouraged. The object has conflicting classifications in astronomical literature, but is probably a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova rather than a novalike variable. BW Scl is located at the following (J2000) coordinates: |
| 19 October | AAVSO 100th Anniversary Commemorative Posters |
By popular demand! A set of twenty pdf commemorative posters exhibited at AAVSO Headquarters is available for downloading from our ftp site. The posters show portraits of the AAVSO's Directors, Presidents, Secretaries, Treasurers, Council members, and Staff from 1911 to 2011, and the top Visual, CCD, PEP, and Photographic/Photovisual observers. Click on the links below to download each poster. |
| 19 October | Deep light curve of GRB 110918A |
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The Advancing Variable Star Astronomy book that chronicles the first 100 years of the AAVSO is now available as an Amazon Kindle e-book. Of course, hard copies are still available from the AAVSO for $80 (20% discount), while supplies last.
Many of you already know Donna Young. She became affiliated with the AAVSO in the mid-1990's when she led the effort, and was the primary author, of Hands On Astrophysics (HOA). HOA was a variable star science education curriculum developed mainly for high school audiences (but is used by some college and advanced middle school classrooms). 
