SAS Symposium on Telescope Science

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Blurring the LineNon-Professionals as Both
Observers Data Analysts
Aaron Price, AAVSO HQ aaronp_at_aavso.org

• SAS Symposium on Telescope Science
• May 27, 2004

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What is an Amateur?
?
Formal Training

• Retired professional astronomers
• Astronomy degree holder
• Astronomy students
• Observatory technicians, planetarium operators,
  science teachers

Informal Training
Advanced degrees in other fields Expertise in
high-tech Access to similar equipment
Lets Call Them Non-Professionals!
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As Observers...

• Historical
• Modern
• Weather
• Latitude Longitude
• Time
• Equipment
• Paperwork
• Training Coordination

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The Situation

• Public sector spending is uncertain
• Increased construction costs
• Consolidation of funds
• Decreasing research assets
• Unused data undiscovered breakthroughs

Dr. Mottas 0.8m in New Hampshire
Visit http//www.aas.org/policy/ for funding
information
KPNO 0.9m on Kitt Peak
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Blurring the Line

• Non-professionals have been doing their own data
  analysis
• CCD data reduction
• Periodicity searches
• Astrometry
• Computer science
• Publication

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A Call to Keyboards

• WG-PAC
• Volunteer management
• SETI_at_Home
• Complementary teams

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Keys To Success

• Skilled volunteers identified
• Teams assembled and trained on scientific merits
  requirements of project
• Clearly defined project goals
• Flexible scheduling
• Availability to answer questions
• Teams that remain together

Mathematician Grant Foster training AAVSO members
on time series analysis at the AAVSO 2003 Spring
Meeting
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Education Public Outreach

• Hands-on training
• Grassroots activism
• Local clubs, museums, schools and newspapers
• Web sites and blogs

Image from space.com
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Example Variable Star Charts

• Maintaining and creating new variable star charts
  is an important but resource draining process
• No quality all-sky photometric database of
  V10.5 exists
• Many AAVSO charts are 50 years old
• We need an automated program, which requires a
  database with precision photometric data and a
  record of past charts and their comparison stars

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AAVSO Comparison Star Database Working Group
20 members from USA, Canada, Australia, Italy
Romania
Researcher
Researcher
Researcher
Researcher
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AAVSO Comparison Star Database Working Group

• Total Stars 65,000 (from 3500 charts)
• Submitted Stars 40,000 (62)
• Validated Stars 30,000 (43)
• In one year!

End result of Phase I will be a publicly
available database of over 65,000 comparison
stars across the sky. Phase II will add
photometric data.
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CHET
Chart Error Tool Created by Christopher Watson
(SDAA)
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CHETResults
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Results

• Phase 1 Completed by 2005
• Beta Software Online
• Phase II involves using an all-sky photometric
  team to get sequences in crowded and unobserved
  regions
• Phase II initial completion by 2007-8
• Ongoing process
• Estimated 2 FTE years for phase 1
• Could not have been done by HQ!
• Historical Database

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Another Sample WinWWZ

• Sent out call for help
• Gave out specs, QB Fortran source code
• 1 Month 10 e-mails later beta version!
• Thanks to Geir Klingenberg of Norway the AAS
  Small Research Grant program

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BZ UMa Wavelet Analysis

• Volunteer software development
• Volunteer data acquisition
• Volunteer analysis

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Future

• Funding is being consolidated
• Pipelines are bursting with unused data
• Non-professionals are key to the future
  productivity of astronomy
• Organizing teams of complementary skill sets can
  leverage public expertise
• Leads to more papers, less busywork and more
  public awareness
• Needs funding!
• AAVSO needs programmers (VB, IDL Java),
  mathematicians, CCD observers and database
  experts. E-mail aaronp_at_aavso.org.

Dont feel dwarfed by the possibilities!
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il fine