Uploaded October 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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Opening Address
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![AAVSO How [My Students and I do Science With AAVSO Data and How You Can, Too]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hAu4MMD7g_g/mqdefault.jpg "AAVSO How [My Students and I do Science With AAVSO Data and How You Can, Too]
Originally broadcast May 7, 2022. Guest instructor: John Percy
Variable stars provide astronomers with unique and important information about the nature, evolution, and behavior of stars. AAVSO observers contribute mightily to this enterprise. For half a century, I have been engaged in variable star research, and in supervising and mentoring undergraduate research students, and even high school students. They can develop and integrate a wide range of science, math, and computing skills, motivated by the thrill of doing real science with real data – including AAVSO data – and publishing their results in journals such as the Journal of the AAVSO (JAAVSO). Skilled amateur astronomers can do this too, whether they are observers or not! I will lead you through some of our projects using freely-available AAVSO data and, more recently, freely-available ASAS-SN data. You will learn about the particular strengths of these datasets, and about the complementary power of light-curve analysis and time-series analysis, using the AAVSO VSTAR package. I will explain what we do, and how, and why. And I will point out some of the science which can be done – by you and/or your students.
John Percy is a very active Professor Emeritus of Astronomy & Astrophysics and Science Education at the University of Toronto. He has served as president of six national or international science and education organizations, including the IAU Commission on Variable Stars, and the AAVSO (1989-1991). He has been an AAVSO member for over 40 years, was the editor of JAAVSO for 10 years, and continues to serve as co-advisor to the Long-period Variable Observing Section.
If you are interested in:
* AAVSOs Long-period Variable Observing Section: https://www.aavso.org/aavso-long-period-variable-section
* attending the Zoom sessions of our How-to series: https://www.aavso.org/2022-how-to-hours
* finding out more about AAVSO, visit our welcome page: aavso.org/welcome")
