can anyone answer these questions?

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Sat, 10/11/2014 - 16:48

Approx. how many VS' are discovered annually?

LuisMartinez's picture

 

Approximate percentage by amateurs?  automated surveys? Just looking for an approximate figure....

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
New variables

Hi Luis,

The answer is "variable" ;)

It depends on the number of publications and especially in the number of stars in those publications.
The big numbers come from automated surveys as you say. One year we may have a publication from one of these surveys (e.g. CRTS) and the number of new variables that year may grow exponentially.

In 2013 we had 69388 new variables from papers and 1880 new ones from individual submitters, mostly amateurs.
Most of those submissions come form data-mining data from the same surveys responsible for the huger number of new stars.

In 2014 we already have more than 40,000 new variables added to VSX. 2.6% of them came form individual submitters.

Cheers,
Sebastian

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
New variables

Thanks for the reply, Sebastian, and for putting discoveries of VSs in context.

So, if I understand correctly, in 2014 approx. 1,040 submissions were made by amateurs, some via their own telescopes but most from data mining survet images?

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
New variables

That's correct, Luis.
But we still have 2 and a half months to make that number grow.

CRTS is nowadays the most widely used database for data-mining work in the context of VSX submissions.

Cheers,
Sebastian