Positions Vacant – Astronomy – rewarding but unpaid

Star field DSS photo from AAVSO website

Enthusiastic Blue Mountains variable star observer Alan Plummer sends the following job advertisement:

OBSERVERS WANTED: Small telescope only req’d, dark sky or CCD not needed. On the job training. PAY: Beyond your wildest dreams. Immediate start. Apply below.

That’s not a joke. The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) have recently published a prioritized list of Stars In Need Of Observation, called ‘Bulletin 71’. The AAVSO is perhaps the most direct way that amateurs like me can co-operate with their professional counterparts, and these ‘Stars In Need’ are a group of objects that are in the middle of an interesting and complicated part of their evolution: They are the red and slowly pulsating Long Period Variable stars (LPVs).

Some of these LPVs have been observed for a hundred years or more, and newer observers are needed to replace the old (who have become even more ‘heavenly’ perhaps?). Continuing observation by visual observers is needed for the sake of consistency with past observers, as obviously, CCD technology is a recent development. Also, a practiced visual observer can monitor many more objects than a CCD observer can, in the same time.

And the pay-off, you ask? When I started, I had no idea that I’d be able to co-operate so closely with the wider astronomical community, and to be contacted by people from around the world for help (often about my messy data, I’m unhappy to say) is special. The beauty of the objects goes without saying. But I can show you, at least. The photograph above is of the field around R Scorpii (in the cross hairs) along with some of the numbered comparison stars used to make an observation, and the globular cluster M80. This one’s on the priority list, and now in my program, so I get to look at this once a week or so! And every field observed has its own attractions.

If you’re interested, first go to the AAVSO website and download the free Visual Observers Manual , then post a reply on this site and we can take it from there.

Alan Plummer
(Sydney City SkyWatchers, AAVSO)