Back American Association of Variable Star Observers AST Associació Americana d'Observadors d'Estrelles Variables Catalan American Association of Variable Star Observers German American Association of Variable Star Observers Spanish انجمن آمریکایی رصدگران ستاره متغیر Persian AAVSO Finnish Association américaine des observateurs d'étoiles variables French Asosiasi Pengamat Bintang Variabel Amerika ID American Association of Variable Star Observers Italian アメリカ変光星観測者協会 Japanese

American Association of Variable Star Observers

The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international nonprofit organization. Founded in 1911, the organization focuses on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers.[1] The AAVSO creates records that establish light curves depicting the variation in brightness of a star over time. The AAVSO makes these records available to professional astronomers, researchers, and educators.

Professional astronomers do not have the resources to monitor every variable star. Hence, astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can make significant contributions to research.[2] In 2011, the 100th year of the AAVSO's existence, the twenty-millionth variable star observation was received into their database.[3] The AAVSO International Database (AID) has stored over thirty-five million observations as of 2019.[4] The organization receives nearly 1,000,000 observations annually from an estimated amount of 2,000 professional and amateur observers, and is quoted regularly in scientific journals.[5][6][7] The International Variable Star Index (VSX) website, maintained by the AAVSO, is cataloging (as of November 2023) 2,277,999 variable stars.[8]

The AAVSO is also very active in education and public outreach. They routinely hold training workshops for citizen science and publish papers with amateurs as co-authors. In the 1990s, the AAVSO developed the Hands-On Astrophysics curriculum, now known as Variable Star Astronomy[9] (with support from the National Science Foundation [NSF]). In 2009, the AAVSO was awarded a three-year $800,000 grant from the NSF to run Citizen Sky,[10] a pro-am collaboration project examining the 2009-2011 eclipse of the star epsilon Aurigae.[11]

The AAVSO headquarters was originally located at the residence of its founder William T. Olcott in Norwich, Connecticut.

Minor Planet (8900) AAVSO is named after the organization.[12]

  1. ^ Saladyga, M. (1999). "The "Pre-Embryonic" State of the AAVSO: Amateur Observers of Variable Stars in the United States From 1875 to 1911". Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. 27 (2): 154–170. Bibcode:1999JAVSO..27..154S.
  2. ^ Ferris, T. (2003). Seeing in the Dark: How Amateur Astronomers Are Discovering the Wonders of the Universe. Simon & Schuster. p. 54. ISBN 0-684-86580-7.
  3. ^ Simonsen, M. (February 23, 2011). "20 Million Observations by Amateur Astronomers". Universe Today. Archived from the original on 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2011-05-16.
  4. ^ "35 million points and counting! | aavso.org". www.aavso.org. Archived from the original on 2019-05-29. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  5. ^ Percy, J. R.; Desjardins, A.; Yu, L.; Landis, H. J. (2002). "Small Amplitude Red Variables in the AAVSO Photoelectric Program: Light Curves and Periods". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 108: 139. Bibcode:1996PASP..108..139P. doi:10.1086/133703.
  6. ^ Cannizzo, J. K. (2002). "The Accretion Disk Limit Cycle Model: Toward an Understanding of the Long-Term Behavior of SS Cygni". The Astrophysical Journal. 419: 318. Bibcode:1993ApJ...419..318C. doi:10.1086/173486. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  7. ^ Kiss, L. L.; Szatmáry, K.; Cadmus, R. R. Jr.; Mattei, J. A. (1999). "Multiperiodicity in semiregular variables. I. General properties". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 346: 542–555. arXiv:astro-ph/9904128. Bibcode:1999A&A...346..542K.
  8. ^ "The International Variable Star Index (VSX)". www.aavso.org. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  9. ^ "Variable Star Astronomy". Archived from the original on 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
  10. ^ "Citizen Sky". Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2019-05-17.
  11. ^ "NSF.gov". Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  12. ^ "(8900) AAVSO = 1995 UD2" (PDF). Minor Planet Circular. Minor Planet Center. 1 May 2003. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-06-12. Retrieved 2012-07-14.

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