Hello! At the meeting in Las Cruce, I mentioned that I would find it helpful to identify LPVs that are of current interest to researchers that would benefit fom additiona observations.
I observe my LPVs once a week. That seems a good average with weather and such since the actual cadence can be longer. I developed my initial list from the LPV section list of stars needing observations. As the year progesses, I adjust the stars I observe.
It seems that some stars have so few observations that me adding it to the list would not help researchers since it would have few observations to estimnate a light curve. Additionally, me adding observations to well observed stars would likely not help a researcher since the light curve would have ample observations to be well characterized.
As a result, there is probably a middle area where additional observations would be very useful to researchers.
Is there a way for me to identify which LPVs researchers might want additional observations for?
The LPV of the month is a good starting point. However, I am unsure whether the listed stars are identified because of a currrent research interest or because there is a desire to firm up the light curve. The latter I already do with the stars in my observing program.
There are a lot of LPVs to choose from, and I am happy to adjust my observing list and/or add LPVs to my list so that it gives the "best bang for the buck." Best regards.
Mike
Thank You for posting this Mike. This is a topic I've been planning to address. There is a lot of good info on the website but it can be hard to find.
I too try to find balance trying to find that middle ground you mentioned. It's tough!
The best place to start is always the program stars. The program stars were specifically choose to pick stars with long histories. One thing about LPVs is we don't know when they're going to be on interest. T UMI is of interest now, but only because it started acting up 20 or so years ago. We need good quality light curves which stretch 100 years to observe these changes.
I bookmark this page which gives program stars which haven't been observed in the last 7 days.
https://www.aavso.org/program-stars-need-observation
It will give you a CSV file which you can filter out stars too close to the sun and which are not LPVs.
Here is the abstract from the purpose of the Program List.
The first of the new AAVSO "sections" is the LPV section. This section has decided to "own" SR, L & RV stars, as well as Miras. There is an LPV Section Wiki, and there has been much discussion on the AAVSO discussion e-mail list regarding the type and number of stars that should be included in the AAVSO LPV Programs. One of our first major tasks is to produce a list of stars to recommend to observers, stars for which the observers can feel that their work will be of value in the present & future age of automated surveys. The core of the list is the AAVSO "legacy stars". The legacy stars will include those stars that have a long & rich history with the AAVSO (more than 15,000 AAVSO observations in 50+ years) and those that have been the subject of many scientific publications. The remaining LPV program stars will include those with at least 5,000 observations in the AAVSO International database, those too bright for most surveys, those that are in fields too crowded for the surveys, plus any that are specifically requested by researchers. The AAVSO Binocular Program will include stars with minima brighter than about 10th magnitude, visible in binoculars for the majority of their cycles.
You can find it on the section website and here is the link from NASA ADS.
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009SASS...28....1H
The Percy List (found on the section website) gives a list of LPVs which we're noticing changes. This is a good place to make find stars and you can check if they're being properly observed with LCG2.
As for the LPV of the Month articles, I try to find program stars of current interest, generally by searching aRxiv and NASA ADS to see what kind of research articles I can find.
If anyone else has places they look for interesting and relevant stars to observe, please chime in!
If I can find a good way to identify some sparsely (but not too sparsely) observes LPVs, I will let you know.
Thank you! I'll examine the the list you referenced and see about adding some additional LPVs each month to my current LPV target list. Best regards.
Mike
Thanks fellows...new observer here and I actually by chance have been following the same procedures as Mike. Great question and answer...will utilize your suggestions.
Jamey
VSX is another great resourse for finding targets.
When you log onto VSX, click the "more" button at the bottom right twice in order to expose all the search options
I always check the box towards the bottom "Observations in the AAVSO International Database". When this is checked, an additional column appears in your search results which shows the total number of observations recorded which can help you quickly weed out stars to infrequently observed to be useful.
Learning to use VSX is part of the "Developing a Visual Observing Program" Choice course. I found this course very useful and recommend it to newer observers. The info is useful for CCD observers too. I discovered a lot of useful AAVSO tools that I didn't know existed when I took it.
I pulled all the Miras with observations in the AID from VSX. They're ordered from brightest maximum magnitude to dimmest. I filtered the list to show stars that have between 4,000 and 20,000 observations. These should be good targets to help beef up they're light curves
... with the proviso that many or most of the Northern Hemisphere candidates listed above are already observed regularly.
Number of observations is a fine screening metric, but is not enough to determine current need. Prospective observers will probably want to examine recent lightcurves in LCG or the equivalent to identify the most promising target candidates.
Very True. I should have stated that this was just a quick screen meant to be a starting point.