http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/80730537.html

AAVSO originated Under IYA, but continuing beyond Focus: current Epsilon Aurigae

eclipse “Citizen” = volunteer or amateur Tutorials, forums, teams, workshops http://www.citizensky.org/

Conversation with Arne Henden (AAVSO Director) at NACAA 2008. Java replacement for Grant Foster’s DOS

program.

Collaboration with AAVSO and Citizen Sky participants since May 2009.

Early demo given in Aug 2009 at first Citizen Sky workshop at Adler Planetarium, Chicago.

Frequent releases since Dec 2009. AAS poster about VStar Team in Jan

2010. NACAA 2010 workshop. 2nd Citizen Sky workshop, San Francisco. There’s still plenty to do…

See SourceForge Bug & Issue tracker Want to write code, test, document?

http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software-development

http://www.citizensky.org/teams/southern-gems

Intended to be an easy-to-use variable star data visualization and analysis tool.

A SourceForge project licensed under GPL.

Click “Download VStar Now” button on this page: http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software-de

velopment

Need Java 1.6 or higher installed.

VStarVStar VStarVStar

AAVSO AAVSO International International

DatabaseDatabase

AAVSO AAVSO International International

DatabaseDatabase

VSXVSX(Variable (Variable

Star Index)Star Index)

VSXVSX(Variable (Variable

Star Index)Star Index)

CSV, CSV, TSV TSV filesfiles

CSV, CSV, TSV TSV filesfiles

https://sites.google.com/site/aavsocvsection/

Not U Sco, but another similar system:Artist’s rendition of recurrent nova RS Oph 

                    Image credit: David Hardy and PPARC

Barbara Harris

Shawn Dvorak

Load U Sco from file Observation details Plot/table link Zoom Change visible series Fainter-thans

1979

1987

1999 2010

Jan 28

Jan 27

Feb 2

Bright (~3rd mag) star in northern constellation Auriga.

Eclipsing binary variable distance: 625 parsecs orbital separation: 18 to 20 AU period: 27.1 years duration: almost 2 years

Variability first noticed by Johann Fritsch, a German amateur in 1821.

Epsilon Aurigae (circled) from Adelaide, 20 Dec 2009 at 0030

Current Epsilon Aurigae eclipse began in August 2009

courtesy www.citizensky.org

Minimum: December 2009 (maybe)

Mid-eclipse: August 2010

Minimum light ends: March 2011

Eclipse ends: May 2011

courtesy www.citizensky.org

By Brian Thieme and courtesy www.citizensky.org

By Nico Camargo and courtesy www.citizensky.org

Load Epsilon Aurigae from AID Filter obscode (BDJB, MRV) Save, print Info Preferences

Colors New group: alpha Ori, del Cep, lx Cyg, omi Cet, x

Cyg Error bars Mean series change, anova Help (anyone?)

http://www.citizensky.org/forum/w-uma-another-eclipsing-binary-star

Load UMa from a file. Phase plot with period 0.33363749 Replot with period 0.333

Load X Cyg from file Period analysis Phase plot

Plug-ins: extend VStar’s functionality.

http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software-development/example-vstar-plugins-jar-files-development-doc

Create vstar_plugins dir under: Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\user *nix: ~/user

Mira (omi Cet) Mean bins change Polynomial model: 7th degree is a good fit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhMeumI36BM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Cygni

Mira type pulsating variable

post-Asymptotic Giant Branch Star (late stage red giant)

5th to 13th magnitude

period: ~407 days

http://www.mtwilson.edu/vir/CHARA.php

http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software-development

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vstar/

http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software-development/vstar-citizen-sky-2-demo-data-files

http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software-development/example-vstar-plugins-jar-files-development-doc