[Aavso-photometry] Data on TheSky Variables?

[Arne Henden]

LS Per is a semidetached algol eclipsing binary. We have about 5000 variables
on the AAVSO "program" (actually, what this currently means is stars
for which observations have been submitted to the AAVSO).  Most of
these are Mira and CV stars, with the remainder a bunch of semiregulars,
cepheids, RR Lyrs, TTau/YSO, etc.  We actually have few binary systems,
since the majority of the research to date has been collecting times
of minima, not analyzing the light curves where you need the individual
observations.

Remember that between the GCVS and the NSV (accompanying
suspected variable catalog), which are probably the main catalogs The Sky
displays, there are probably 70,000 stars, or perhaps 10-15 times as
many as the AAVSO has collected data for.  That is why you won't find
many in our database with random selection.

Now, should you study a specific star?  That is a harder question.
Just collecting a few data points by yourself and then going to another
star means that insufficient information is collected to do a thorough
analysis.  Also, there are thousands of eclipsing binary stars, so just
getting a light curve of any given one may not be scientifically interesting.
So we generally recommend that you observe a star for which we already
have data, and for which we have generated a photometric sequence.
You can certainly choose your own star, and we now have opened up
the database so that you can submit data on *any* GCVS star.  But
you will have more success with an established star.  We also post
campaigns about once per month on specific, especially interesting
stars, asking for observations.

We're not perfect, and to be honest, haven't given a lot of guidance
towards some good stars to follow.  We'll be doing better this year,
now that most of the big changes that have been soaking up staff
time are in place.  In your case, where you have spare time because
you've improved your efficiency, I'd consider generating a list of CVs
that don't go into outburst very often, and just hitting each field each
night to generate "fainter than" estimates, waiting for an outburst.
I'm sure others have similar programs that can soak up as much
free time as you have, so don't worry about staying busy!
Arne


On Jan 18, 2008 6:30 PM, Sal Giambruno <salgiambruno at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Now that I've finally become more efficient at making observations (and find myself in between jobs and having good weather), I find I have plenty of time to spare after making all my observations of targets with predicted minima in The Bulletin.  I would like to make good use of this time, but don't know what else I can be observing.
>
> I noticed that in TheSky there are a tremendous number of variables and suspected variables - many more than are listed in the AAVSO Bulletin.  Out of curiosity, I picked one of these variables at random, I think it was LS Per, and tried to find AAVSO light-curve data for it.  AAVSO reported no data available, so I tried another, and another, all with the same failure.  Why is this?  Do these variables not need to be observed?
>
> Thanks,
> Sal (GSA)
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