The column "Talking about the AAVSO" in the AAVSO Newsletter has been discontinued in that publication as of the July 2017 issue. In its place, we invite members and observers to post to this forum thread about their upcoming and past talks, presentations, etc. about the AAVSO, variable stars, and other related astronomy outreach.
Below are some entries from the April 2017 AAVSO Newsletter that are upcoming, and some items that were submitted for the July issue. They are included here not only to spread the word but to serve as examples - although you don't have to follow this format in your post.
Thank you for the outreach you do to spread the word about the AAVSO and variable star observing!
Good Speaking,
Elizabeth Waagen, AAVSO Newsletter Editor
May 15, 2017 - Mark De Jong (DJX, Saskatoon, Sask, Canada) gave a presentation on "Variable Star Observing with a Small Telescope" at the RASC Saskatoon Centre meeting.
September 7, 2017 – Gary Poyner (PYG, Birmingham, England) will speak on “Historical Novae” to the Walsall Astronomical Society, West Midlands, England.
October 15, 2017 – Gary Poyner will speak on “The monster in the Crab - the story of OJ+287” to the Rugby Astronomical Society, Warwickshire, England.
December 14, 2017 – Gary Poyner will speak on “Legends in the sky” at the Canwell Womens Institute, Canwell, Sutton Coldfield, Staffordshire, England.
Dennis Conti (CDEC, Annapolis, MD), AAVSO Exoplanet Section Chair, gave two presentations at this year's Northeast Astroimaging Conference (NEAIC, April 6-7, 2017): "Fundamentals of Exoplanet Observing" and "Exoplanet Observing Using AstroImageJ." At the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF, April 8-9, 2017), which immediately followed NEAIC, Dennis also participated in the Pro/Am Collaboration Series where he gave two presentations on exoplanet observing and microlensing.
Dennis also participated in meetings of the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) Science Team. These meetings are in preparation for the launch early next year of TESS, a follow-on to the Kepler space telescope (see the Exoplanet Observing Section Update in the July 2017 newsletter).
June 16, 2017 - Dennis Conti, AAVSO Exoplanet Section Chair, gave the following presentation at the joint SAS-AAVSO Spring meeting in Ontario, CA: "Exoplanet Observing: From Art to Science." A copy of this and other presentations by Dennis can be found at http://astrodennis.com.
Hi,
Hoping, next month or May near full moon, to be giving at least one talk on variable stars / YSOs at 'Astrofarm' located between Bordeaux and Limoges. May be delivering the talk in English and French depending on the audience!
I've got a few coming up in the UK over the next couple of months...
March 30. Norwich AS - Introduction to VS
April 20. Chesterfield AS - The monster in the crab (OJ287)
May 11. Marches Astronomy Group - Historical Novae
May 14. Northampton Natural History Society - The Monster in the crab
I'll be presenting a talk on 'Tabby's Star' next week on 04/06 at a meeting of the Memphis Astronomical Society. The talk will focus on the recent paper "The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852" by Boyajian et. all. I will emphasize 1) how science works by limiting/constraining hypotheses as more evidence becomes available and 2) the role of citizen scientists like us in the attempt to understand the behavior of an anomalous variable star like KIC 8462852.
I am wondering if you might share your presentation. I have been thinking of doing something similar at my club and no point in duplicating the base work.
Dave (LDJ) - observing KIC since fall 2015
I'll be glad to as soon as it is complete. That means it will probably be next weekend some time. I'll probably be polishing it up just before the talk.
Hi Dave,
If you give me an email address, I'll send the presentation. Or email me: cmaloney@pccua.edu
Chris
Hello
I will be giving a talk at NEAIC this year on the subject of sCMOS sensors for AAVSO Photometry. The title of my talk is "Is sCMOS really sMas?" I will be presenting evaluation data on M67 from two sCMOS cameras. Hope to see you there.
Gary
Hi,
I've had a few people state that they've had trouble getting observer initials assigned when following the register instructions. The website states the initials are auto-assigned, but there is apparently human intervention. How long should a new observer have to wait for intials assigned? (I can't check this out, since I can't get to that part of the website, since I am already assigned.) Any clarity would be appreciated, since I'd like to recruit observers, but web issues send them away quickly. :-)
Rick (HUZ)
I am a new member and I got my intials instantly. I signed up, clicked on the My Profile tab, and it says AAVSO Observer Code: click here
as soon as i clicked "click here" a code came up in its place
Hi Rick,
When someone requests AAVSO Obsever Initials (=observer code=obscode), they are automatically assigned; no human is involved. This process usually only takes a matter of minutes.
The only exception is if someone is part of a institutional group such as an astronomy class and the group needs all observations to be recognizable as coming from that group by means of similar initials. In those cases the instructor contacts me to set up an institutional code, and I assign individual codes based on that institutional code when the instructor gives me names. We don't do this lightly or very often.
If anyone has trouble when they request observer initials, they should send an email to us (aavso@aavso.org) in which they explain what happened and include the text of the error message.
It is true that a person has to have an AAVSO web account to be able to request observer initials. This account is free and takes only a few minutes to set up: click on the Login link in the top right corner of our webpage and choose Create account, then follow the directions. Once the account has been created, the person can request initials.
Rick, could you please ask the observers you know of who have had trouble if they had first created their account? If they had, and they still could not obtain initials, could you please ask them to contact us and tell us what happened?
Thanks,
Elizabeth
Thanks Elizabeth! Will do.
rick
On November 14-16 I had the honor of representing the AAVSO at PhysCon 2019 in Providence, Rhode Island. Over a thousand physics and astronomy students and their faculty/mentors rubbed shoulders with renowned scientists such as Dame Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Nobel Prize Winner Dr. John Mather, learned about graduate school and employment opportunities, and just generally soaked up the intellectual stimulation and comradery. At the AAVSO booth I had the opportunity to explain what the organization can offer to these intelligent, motivated young people, and how they can contribute to the scientific endeavor through the study of variable stars. Every so often someone would enthusiastically bound up to the booth and profusely thank us for providing the data they needed to do their project. It was indeed heartening to see firsthand the impact the AAVSO makes every day. Count me in as looking forward to the next PhysCon, October 28-30, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
I'm the secretary for the Huntsville Branch of the National Space Society. We're looking for someone from AAVSO who would be interested in giving an online talk on AAVSO and photometry. If anyone is interested, contact me.
I will be giving a talk on June 23rd at 6pm UT (7pm in the UK!) on Variable Stars via zoom at the Virtual Astronomy Club:
https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/WebPage/virtual-astro-club/
Should involve some fun demos - and you may discover why YSO's are literally rock'n'roll!
Mike P.
Dear AAVSOers,
I will be giving a talk in Spanish about VSX, variable stars and data-mining projects on Friday, June 19th, 20.30 UT (starting 20.45 hs.) in the framework of the 3er. Simposio de Astronomía y Astroturismo organized online by three astronomy groups in Argentina.
The talk will be broadcasted through the YouTube channel Astronomía y Turismo:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQcvlJTUyVg4ZUyzjwE78nw/featured
Just before the talk links will also be avialble to connect through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Links and more information at:
http://www.elfirmamento.com.ar/?p=4448
Sebastian
Hello,
I'm giving a short talk to my club about photometry in a few weeks. I'm pretty sure I'm the only member of the club doing variable star work. Just wondering if there are any materials that I could use for a presentation to get people interested in variable stars, photometry and contributing to AAVSO?
Thanks!
Derek
P.S. I did give a talk on exoplanet observing and if my slides are of any use please feel free https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1My9yhzRrljzo7uHCBZt8nc0-IuwWyUh…