The "pre-embryonic" state of the AAVSO: Amateur observers of
variable stars in the United States from 1875 to 1911
pdf ps
Michael
Saladyga
AAVSO
Headquarters
25
Birch Street
Cambridge,
MA 02138
Presented
at the 87th Annual Meeting of the AAVSO, October 31, 1998
Abstract
For 35 years before the
formation of the AAVSO, independent amateur variable star astronomers in the
United States were making significant contributions to the field. Skilled,
dedicated individuals like S. C. Chandler, E. F. Sawyer, and P. S. Yendell laid
the foundation in variable star work that was expanded upon by Harvard College
Observatory Director E. C. Pickering, under whose direction a new generation of
enthusiastic amateur and professional astronomers continued to further the
cause of variable star research. This paper is a survey of the contributions
made by several independent amateur variable star astronomers, and it is also a
chronology of the growth of a broader, more popularized, amateur involvement in
variable star astronomy which led to the organization of the AAVSO in 1911.
Link to ADS abstract, article and citation information
