weo's blog

For me, bells, astronomy, and variable stars go together.

In college I learned change ringing [2] (ringing mathematical patterns on bells hung in a tower, each person handling the rope controlling one bell) from experienced ringers who included fellow students in astronomy courses who became true comrades when I changed my major to astronomy and we studied and rang together. (Sara Beck (BSJ) was one of my teachers.) Continue Reading [1]

I am currently checking the data on about 500 long period variables - Miras and semiregulars - for a project spearheaded by Matthew Templeton. Many of these stars average more than 30,000 observations in the AAVSO International Database and cover an interval of approximately 90-170 years.
Continue Reading [3]

I started working at the AAVSO in August 1979. My responsibilities included processing the monthly data and supervising data entry. As Janet Mattei’s assistant, over the years I was assigned a wide variety of tasks, all in the service of the AAVSO and its mission. Continue Reading [4]

The AAVSO's archive of times of maxima and minima of long period variables is almost as old as the AAVSO itself, and we are giving these data new life by re-releasing them to the community in electronic form after a long hiatus. Continue Reading [6]

I have been reading and commenting on some of the chapters in the centennial book that Tom Williams and Mike Saladyga are writing. They are doing a fantastic job of writing the AAVSO's history!
I know from my own researches in the AAVSO archives that sometimes untangling the sequence of events and figuring out who did what when is not at all easy. Kudos to Tom and Mike!