Variable Star Astronomy

You are invited on a journey into the hearts of the stars—to see the rhythms of their pulsations, and to gain an understanding of how they evolve.
[1]

Variable Star Astronomy, formerly published as Hands-On Astrophysics, was developed for anyone who is interested in astronomy and in learning more about the behaviors and properties of stars. The conversion of the curriculum to electronic format has been completed for the Student Manual and the Teacher Pages. Conversion of the supporting VSTAR software is in progress. The AAVSO, with support from the Chandra X-Ray Center, is delighted to make this rich educational content available to you, free-of-charge, below. If you have any questions or comments please contact us [2]. Enjoy!
		About VSA [3]
		Using the Manual, teacher.pdf [4]
		Introduction and Table of Contents, .pdf [5]
		UNIT 1: Planets and Stars Chapter 1: The Solar System and Beyond, .pdf [6] \| teacher.pdf [7] Chapter 2: The Nature of Stars, .pdf [8] \| teacher.pdf [9]

		UNIT 2: Introducing the Sky Chapter 3: Familiarizing Yourself With the Night sky, .pdf [10] \| teacher.pdf [11] Chapter 4: Our Bearings in the Sky, .pdf [12] \| teacher.pdf [13]

		UNIT 3: Observing Variable Stars Chapter 5: Introducing the Hands-On Astrophysics Constellations, .pdf [14] \| teacher.pdf [15] Chapter 6: Measuring Variable Stars Visually, .pdf [16] \| teacher.pdf [17] Chapter 7: Observing Variable Stars in the Real Sky, .pdf [18] \| teacher.pdf [19]

		UNIT 4: The Message of Light Chapter 8: The Nature of Light, .pdf [20] \| teacher.pdf [21] Chapter 9: The Life of a Star, .pdf [22] \| teacher.pdf [23]

		UNIT 5: Analysis of Variable Stars Chapter 10: Statistical Concepts, .pdf [24] \| teacher.pdf [25] Chapter 11: Variable Stars, Light Curves, and Variability, .pdf [26] \| teacher.pdf [27] Chapter 12: Variable Stars and Phase Diagrams, .pdf [28] \| teacher.pdf [29] Chapter 13: Variable Stars and O-C Diagrams, .pdf [30] \| teacher.pdf [31]
		GLOSSARY, .pdf [32]

* In the original Hands-On Astrophysics distribution, there were slides available to practice magnitude estimates. Now there is an excellent online activity via the Chandra website:

Online activity: "A Variable Star in Cygnus"
Powerpoint slides to be used with the activity [33]

by The American Association of Variable Star Observers

May be reproduced for non-commercial educational use only.

Attachment	Size
teacher_using_manual.pdf [4]	64.94 KB
intro.pdf [5]	1.07 MB
Chapter1.pdf [6]	1.52 MB
Chapter2.pdf [8]	4.45 MB
Chapter3.pdf [10]	8.73 MB
Chapter4.pdf [12]	7.67 MB
Chapter5.pdf [14]	8.6 MB
Chapter6.pdf [16]	8.04 MB
Chapter7.pdf [18]	4.89 MB
Chapter8.pdf [20]	1.02 MB
Chapter9.pdf [22]	1.33 MB
Chapter10.pdf [24]	5.57 MB
Chapter11.pdf [26]	4.88 MB
Chapter12.pdf [28]	2.17 MB
Chapter13.pdf [30]	3.31 MB
teacher_Chapter13.pdf [31]	151.91 KB
teacher_Chapter12.pdf [29]	84.91 KB
teacher_Chapter11.pdf [27]	30.32 KB
teacher_Chapter10.pdf [25]	52.56 KB
teacher_Chapter9.pdf [23]	143.96 KB
teacher_Chapter8.pdf [21]	49.33 KB
teacher_Chapter7.pdf [19]	44.22 KB
teacher_Chapter6.pdf [17]	128.55 KB
teacher_Chapter5.pdf [15]	464.74 KB
teacher_Chapter4.pdf [13]	325.99 KB
teacher_Chapter3.pdf [11]	68.71 KB
teacher_Chapter2.pdf [9]	31.27 KB
teacher_Chapter1.pdf [7]	91.3 KB
Glossary.pdf [32]	202.59 KB

Page Editor: RebeccaTurner
Last Updated: June 20, 2012 - 11:45am

Keywords:

Links:
[1] http://www.aavso.org/about-VSA
[2] http://www.aavso.org/contact
[3] http://www.aavso.org/../../about-VSA
[4] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_using_manual.pdf
[5] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/intro.pdf
[6] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter1.pdf
[7] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter1.pdf
[8] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter2.pdf
[9] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter2.pdf
[10] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter3.pdf
[11] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter3.pdf
[12] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter4.pdf
[13] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter4.pdf
[14] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter5.pdf
[15] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter5.pdf
[16] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter6.pdf
[17] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter6.pdf
[18] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter7.pdf
[19] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter7.pdf
[20] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter8.pdf
[21] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter8.pdf
[22] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter9.pdf
[23] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter9.pdf
[24] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter10.pdf
[25] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter10.pdf
[26] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter11.pdf
[27] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter11.pdf
[28] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter12.pdf
[29] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter12.pdf
[30] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Chapter13.pdf
[31] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/teacher_Chapter13.pdf
[32] http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Glossary.pdf
[33] http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/variable_stars/activity2ppt.html
[34] http://www.aavso.org/category/tags/analysis
[35] http://www.aavso.org/category/tags/education
[36] http://www.aavso.org/category/tags/introduction
[37] http://www.aavso.org/category/tags/statistics
[38] http://www.aavso.org/category/tags/variable-stars

Variable Star Astronomy

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