This webinar will feature brief talks from three AAVSO Sections: Sections in the Spotlight: Spectroscopy, High Energy Network and Photoelectric Photometry. The session will include a discussion of the AAVSO’s Section system, and ways to participate. Why should I register for this webinar? If recurrent novae make your heart beat fast, you’ll find a place […]
The AAVSO and the SuperNova Early Warning System team (SNEWS) are collaborating to monitor bright potential supernova progenitors. The targets are broadly distributed across the sky and all types of observing may be used, so this exciting campaign offers any interested observer the opportunity to contribute. This webinar looks at the progress to date, and […]
Dr. Rob Zellem, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will present an overview of Exoplanet Watch. This citizen science project allows folks, even those without telescopes, to aid researchers in observing transiting exoplanets to help ensure the efficient use of NASA resources, like Hubble and JWST. He'll also give a workshop demonstration of […]
Interested in learning how to detect a planet orbiting a distant star? And doing so from your own backyard telescope? This webinar will provide an overview of the instrumentation, software, and processes required to detect exoplanets using the transit method. For astro-imagers in particular, the transition to exoplanet observing offers an opportunity to use your […]
Join us as we hear from each of the candidates running in the AAVSO's FY25 Board election. Each candidate will discuss their own background, running platform, and thoughts on the future of the AAVSO.
Shishir Dholakia has been doing something exciting: using TESS light curves to accurately map the orbits of widely separated binaries. His secret? Pulsation Timing Variations, caused by the speed-of-light delay as each component swings through space. Join us on the cutting edge of research as Shishir offers an inside view into this novel project!
Bob King fell in love with the night sky when he was a kid, and he loves to share his passion with people of all ages through teaching and public observing. His long-time association with the AAVSO has seen him observe the most remote and exotic places in the universe—including “visits” to quasars, blazars and […]
Join us for a special webinar celebrating our stellar volunteers! The star of this webinar is our vibrant community. Join us to learn about our volunteers' valuable work, and the impressive impact of their observations and contributions. The discussion will touch on all aspects of the AAVSO, making this an ideal opportunity to learn more […]
Professor Dan Milisavljevic (Purdue University) will review and update plans for a coordinated global response to the next supernova in our Milky Way galaxy. The first alert that the "Big One" has happened will come from the Supernova Early Warning System (SNEWS), which is a network of neutrino detectors around the world. The neutrinos will […]
Instructor: Dennis Conti The purpose of this course is to provide newcomers to exoplanet observing with the background and skills necessary to conduct high quality exoplanet observations. The course will be conducted via a series of 1.5-hour interactive Zoom sessions held once a week at 7:30pm ET for 5 consecutive weeks. The course will begin […]
Instructor: Ed Wiley. CCD1 and CCD2 have been combined into a single six-week course. We will use the AAVSO Guide to CCD/CMOS Photometry as our basic reference. This course will use the AAVSO platform VPhot as the basic software for performing tasks such as measuring variables. A brief introduction to VPhot is provided but is […]
The discovery and characterization of exoplanet atmospheres is mired in the challenge of disentangling planetary characteristics from the complex signatures of stellar activity. For stars cooler than the Sun, spots on their surface can be cool enough that molecular absorption appears in the stellar spectrum and can be mistaken for absorption in a planetary atmosphere. […]
nternational Astronomy Day provides an opportunity to celebrate our diverse international community. The night sky has no borders; it provides ample opportunities for us all to connect, discover and learn. For additional resources, please visit the Astronomical League’s Astronomy Day webpage.
Last month, Dr. Waalkes gave a presentation on how stellar activity could drastically alter the interpretation of an exoplanet's atmospheric composition. This month, join Dr. Rob Zellem (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) as he talks about NASA's Pandora SmallSat mission, which is scheduled to launch no earlier than Fall 2025 and will monitor ≥20 transiting […]
Instructor: Aritra Das This course is intended to provide participants with a systematic coverage of VStar’s current functionality, an appreciation of the ways in which it can be extended, and how it can be used for variable star data visualization and analysis. You’ll learn how to create mean plots, phase plots, and perform simple period […]
