This page will present a brief introduction to Young Stellar Objects and Star Formation. What it is and why we are so darn interested by the whole thing - and what we, as amateur astronomers, can do in helping to discover more about the amazing, violent processes that are going on, as you read this, in deepest space (at least that's what most of us are; apologies to you lucky visitors who actually get paid for doing astronomy)
August 1, 2013: Dr. Hans Moritz Guenther (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) has requested nightly observations of the classical T Tauri star AA Tau in order to schedule x-ray observations with XMM-Newton that have been planned for between 2013 August 15 and September 15.
January 16, 2013: Dr. Péter Ábrahám (Konkoly Observatory, Budapest, Hungary) has requested the assistance of AAVSO observers in monitoring eight young stars in Chamaeleon in support of photometry he and his colleagues will be obtaining with the VLT/ISAAC (infrared) and Herschel Space Observatory (far-infrared) during January-February 2013.
Just over one year ago, a small spacecraft called MOST began a month-long observing run on one of the most spectacular objects in Earth's skies, the beautiful Trapezium region at the heart of the Orion Nebula, M42. My collaborators and I applied for and received this observing time to survey variability in this young stellar cluster -- partly to study the eclipsing binary BM Ori (theta 01 Orionis B), but also to survey as many young stars that we were able to using the unique capabilities of MOST. Since then, I along with my collaborators -- our Director Arne H
February 15, 2011: Dr. Colin Aspin (U. Hawaii) has requested archival images and other observations of the FU Orionis variable V1647 Ori and the surrounding field over the previous 10 years in support of a study of this star. Aspin writes that he is hoping to obtain more data with which to create a multi-year light curve of this star to put present-day observations in context of its past behavior.
November 23, 2010: The AAVSO requests ground-based observations of the Trapezium region of the Orion Nebula (M42), along with surrounding regions in Orion, in conjunction with upcoming observations with the MOST Satellite. All AAVSO observers are encouraged to participate in this project, and we are requesting observations for a number of different targets from both instrumental and visual observers.
October 1, 2010: Dr. Colin Aspin (U. Hawai'i) has requested the help of AAVSO observers in performing long-term photometric monitoring of the two new young stellar objects (YSOs) in Cygnus, HBC 722 and VSX J205126.1+440523 (see AAVSO Special Notice #216).
