How Far We've Come

The AAVSO: Then and Now

(This message was originally posted to the AAVSO discussion group.)

I've been around a while, and I thought it might be fun to do a little compare and contrast, then and now, for those that haven't been around more than a few years:

Where we are now vs. where we were:

1983: Get a copy of the chart catalog from HQ, and write separately to Clint Ford for a copy of the preliminary chart catalog. Look through them and pick out stars to observe. Write to HQ and Clint, enclosing a check for $0.25 for each chart (yes, gang, we *paid* for charts!). A few weeks later, packages arrive with charts - happy day! Now you can observe.

2003: Look out the window at sunset, see it's clear, and decide to observe. Check the Bulletin online, pick out a few LPVs to observe - oops, no charts for that one... download the appropriate charts, or print them from the Chart CD. 30 minutes later you're at the eyepiece.

1983: Finish observing for the night. Read from a table the JD and fraction for each observation. Transcribe your observing log into a notebook which has a page for each star you've ever observed, filed in order of the Harvard designations. At the end of the month, page through this notebook, and transcribe, again, each observation for that month onto a report form, in order of Harvard designation, then mail it off to HQ. Sometime that month, someone at HQ will look at it.

2003: Finish observing for the night. Type observations into WebObs. JD is instantly calculated for you. Observations are instantly available in the AAVSO International Database.

1983: Submit your observations to AAVSO. Wait years, or perhaps decades. See a monograph, or an article in JAAVSO, and vaguely remember observing that star. Feverishly look through ancient, dusty observing records, and see that yes!you did observe that star! Check to see how your observations compared with others... at last, feedback!

2003: Submit observations via Webobs. Use the Quick Look and the Light Curve Generator 15 minutes later to see how you're doing.

1983: Separately mail in CV observations for inclusion in the AAVSO Circular. A month later, get a copy of the Circular, and see that SS Cyg had gone into outburst two months ago... on the night you decided to watch "Dallas" instead of observe. Doh!

2003: Get the AAVSO "News Flash" by e-mail in the afternoon. Sorry, honey, I'm skipping "Survivor" tonight, SS Cyg is up!

1983: A Japanese amateur suspects a nova in Sagittarius. 8 days later, you get an Alert notice with charts in the mail.

2003: A Japanese amateur suspects a nova in Sagittarius. You pick up the mounting buzz on the e-mail lists, and by dark you can go out with binoculars and confirm it. The following morning, AAVSO charts are available for downloading.

1983: Observe the new nova. Mail in reports at the end of the month. Never hear about it again.

2003: Observe the new nova. Submit observations via Webobs. The next day, your observation and name is in an IAU Circular on the nova, e-mailed over to CfA by on-the-ball HQ staff.

1983: Just who *are* these HQ people, anyway?

2003: Exchange e-mail with Aaron Price on an idea I had for the web site, which of course he thought of long ago. Get a polite e-mail from Gamze Menali indicating that she'd removed the observation that my fat fingers entered incorrectly the night before. Read Janet's thoughts, written this morning, on the latest controversy that started yesterday.

1983: Observe variable stars - it is a solitary pursuit, with little feedback, and the only satisfaction is knowing you are one of the few people with their finger on the pulse of the galaxy, even if you don't actually *know* any of the others.

2003: Observe variable stars - participate in an active, vibrant scientific community knit together by the Internet and the way that the membership and HQ staff have adapted it to our needs.

Our lives as observers are so much better today than in the past. There is always room for further improvement, but in the context of our "instant satisfaction"culture, let's not lose sight of the great progress made to date.

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