- American Association of Variable Star Observers
Since its founding in 1911, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) has coordinated, collected, evaluated, analyzed, published, and archived
variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers and makes the records available to professionalastronomers , researchers, and educators. These records establishlight curves depicting the variation in brightness of astar over time.Since professional astronomers do not have the time or the resources to monitor every
variable star ,astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can make genuine contributions to scientific research. The AAVSO International Database currently has over 12 million variable star estimates dating back over 100 years. It receives over 500,000 observations annually from around 2,000 professional and amateur observers.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 coauthors. They pioneered the modern day model of professionals and amateurs working side-by-side as team members doing data analysis, as opposed to the old model of professionals as mentors to amateurs who simply provide observational assistance. Also, the AAVSO developed the Hands-On Astrophysics curriculum (with support from the
National Science Foundation ).The director of the AAVSO for many decades was
Janet Mattei , who died in March2004 ofleukemia .The AAVSO was originally located at the
Harvard College Observatory from 1911-1956, then moved around Cambridge before purchasing their first building in 1985 - The [http://www.aavso.org/aavso/about/hq.shtml Clinton B. Ford Astronomical Data and Research Center] . In 2007, the AAVSO purchased and moved into the recently vacated premises ofSky and Telescope magazine. [http://www.aavso.org/news/49baypress.shtml]Current and former members
The AAVSO currently has over 2,000 members and observers, with approximately half of them from outside the United States. This list only consists of those with Wikipedia pages.
* Leah B. Allen Charter Member [ Dorrit Hoffleit "The Maria Mitchell Observatory:For Astronomical Research and Public Enlightenment" JAAVSO Volume30, 2001, p70 http://www.aavso.org/publications/ejaavso/v30n1/62.pdf , where her photograph from 1930 appears]
*Joseph Ashbrook
*Leon Campbell (AAVSO Director 1915-1949)
*Robert Evans (AAVSO Supernova Search Committee Chairperson)
*Clinton B. Ford
*Russell Merle Genet
*Edward A. Halbach
*Arne Henden (AAVSO Director 2004- )
*Richard Huziak
*Albert F. A. L. Jones
*Michael Koppelman
* Giovanni B. Lacchini
*Helen Lines
*Richard D. Lines
* Janet A. Mattei (AAVSO Director 1973-2004)
*Margaret Mayall (AAVSO Director 1949-1973)
*Ben Mayer
* William T. Olcott
* M. Daniel Overbeek
*Leslie Peltier
* Edward C. Pickering
*Peter Francis Williams External links
* [http://www.aavso.org/ AAVSO website]
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