2005 Annual Report

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New Member SummaryApril 1, 2005 September 30,
2005
Annual 38
Members from US 32 Members from Abroad
6 (from 5 countries)
TOTAL New Members 38
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2004-2005 AAVSO New Membership Totals

• October 1, 2004 March 31, 2005 44
• April 1, 2005 September 30, 2005 38
• Total New Members FY04-05 82

Membership Types Annual (including Associate,
Complimentary) 81 Sustaining
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All Current AAVSO Members by Type
Total Members 1,151
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AAVSO Members by Country
1,151 Total
(from 45 Countries)
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Membership Status ChangesApril 1, 2005
September 30, 2005

• Annual to Sustaining 4
• Sustaining to Annual 5
• Resigned from Membership 10 nm

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Deceased Members and Friends

• Fred Whipple - Cambridge, MA (comet research, SAO
  Director)
• Philip Morrison - Cambridge, MA (MIT
  theoretician, high energy astrophysics)
• James Baker - Bedford, NH (Baker-Nunn, Baker
  Super-Schmidt, optician)
• Marie-Odile Mennessier - Montpellier University,
  France (Hipparcos scientist, LPV research)

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Deceased Members and Friends
Dorthy developed a lasting interest in natural
history and astronomy at a young age. She pursued
many interests and professions and received a
bachelors degree in paleontology and a masters
degree in botany. In 1963, Dorothy took a job in
Charlotte,N.C., at the Childrens Nature Museum,
where she became the director of the planetarium.
Subsequently, she directed planetariums in
Newport News, Va., Cincinnati, Ohio, and
Columbus,Ga., before retiring in 1984.
Dorthy Beetle Pillmore - Fort Collins, CO
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Deceased Members and Friends
Walt was best known for having discovered the
E-ring of Saturn. Mr. Feibelman, a native of
Berlin, came to the United States with his
parents in 1941. They were some of the last
German Jews to flee Nazi Germany. Years later, he
reported his experiences in an account
contributed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum. After high school, he attended the
Carnegie Institute of Technology and worked for
16 years at the Westinghouse Research Labs in
Pittsburgh. From 1954 until 1969, he was a
research scientist at the University of
Pittsburgh. He joined the Optical Astronomy
Division of Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt in 1969, and worked there until 2002,
when he became an emeritus astronomer at NASA.
Feibelman became associated with the
International Ultraviolet Explorer project, and
worked on developing detectors for the orbiting
observatory's spectrograph. The project turned
out to be one of the most successful NASA
observatories, operating from 1978 to 1996.
Walter Feibelman Silver Spring, MD
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Spring 2006 meeting will be at

• Rockford, IL
• May 5 and 6, 2006
• Local host Bob Beaman
• http//www.ci.rockford.il.us/

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Fall 2006 meeting will be at

• Newton, MA
• October 27 and 28, 2006

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Spring 2007 meeting

• Calgary, RASC/ALPO late June

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AAVSO Annual ReportFiscal Year 2004-2005

• Arne Henden
• October 15, 2005

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Highlights - 1

• Addition of Wayne Lowders 95,000 observations to
  the ID
• Progress on adding A.W. Roberts 70,000
  observations to the ID
• New charts
• Cataloging 70,614 comparison stars
• Development of the automated chart plotter

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Highlights - 2

• Responded to 2846 requests for AAVSO data
• Held 3rd high energy astrophysics workshop
• Held 2nd annual AAVSO symposium
• Started the eJAAVSO
• Moved the membership database to MySQL

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Highlights - 3

• Initiated many observing campaigns
• Awarded first Janet Mattei Research Fellowship
• Published 2 issues of the JAAVSO
• Published newsletters, eyepiece views, CCD views,
  alert notices, solar bulletins, etc.
• Submitted several papers containing AAVSO data
• Held/holding 3 workshops in Fall
• Visit to Hungary

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Recent Download StatisticsMay 2005 through Sep
2005
Lightning strikes at HQ
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Weekly Web Trends from May 22 through Sep 24,
2004 and 2005 of Total Web Pages Downloaded for
this time period
Lightning strikes at HQ in 2005

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Top Ten Downloaded Pages(Excluding the Home Page)
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AAVSO Charts Online
About 270,603 Charts were
Downloaded
Within the last year
The 5 most popular stars (in order) N Pup 04,
NGC 6946, N Sgr 05, Var Vul 05, N Sco 05
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Charts Downloaded from 10/04 to 9/05
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Compare Chart Downloads
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Light Curve Generator
Curves plotted from Oct 04 Sep 05 189,377
curves Plots per day 519
Most popular stars plotted
SS CYG, U Gem, R Leo, Z Uma, R Sct
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Software DownloadsOct 1, 2004 to Sep 31, 2005
WWZ 594 VSTelescope 195 PCObs 449 ChartCD 18
4 TS 368 SolObs 160 MagPlot 332 PhasPlot 1
55 VarStarSearch 209 Zap 132
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Top Ten Visitors
to the AAVSO website
Network (.net) Commercial (.com) USA Educational
(.edu) Italy (.it) Australia (.au) Canada
(.ca) Belgium (.be) Poland (.pl) Germany
(.de) Japan (.jp)
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Bottom Ten Visitors
to the AAVSO website
Saudi Arabia (.sa) Colombia (.co) Slovenia
(.si) Singapore (.sg) Thailand (.th) Lithuania
(.lt) Estonia (.ee) Peru (.pe) Ukraine
(.ua) Slovakia (.sk)
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Campaign news - AE Aqr

• Press release (English/Spanish)
• Chris Mauche PI (LLNL)
• Rapidly spinning magnetic CV no accretion disk
  magnetic field throws material out before it can
  impact the white dwarf (magnetic propeller)
• Chandra, GALEX and 4 ground-based observatories,
  plus amateurs Aug 30/31
• Analysis under way

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Campaign news - Z Cha

• Chris Mauche and Peter Wheatley
• Ongoing monitoring for outbursts of HT Cas, Z Cha
  and OY Car
• Trigger ToO programs on Swift, XMM
• Z Cha went into outburst 9/26 initial report
  from Tim Cooper, confirmed by Rod Stubbings
• Rods observation triggered XMM
• Waiting for Swift to detect rise in Xrays after
  visual decline

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JAM Research Fellowship

• 1 awarded to Grant Foster
• Summer work on secular variations of cepheid
  variables
• Used visual data for 65 cepheids
• AJ paper submitted shortly
• Continue contributing to the fund!

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Web page

• Kate/Aaron tonight
• Many changes, transparent to user
• Look at it at least monthly to see news
• New sections Campaigns, fundraising

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New Charts

• Replacing old hand-drawn or microdot
• Improving sequences
• Thousands of new charts over past few years
• Effort now on error fixes

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JAAVSO

• 2 issues published this year
• Electronic version created
• All refereed articles immediately posted
• Working on links to all previous volumes

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Visual Observing Manual Translations

• French - Dominique Naillon
• Spanish - Valerie Daum, Jaime Garcia
• Turkish - Murat Gezer

We thank them all!
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The membership database (SOLO)

• Designed by Aaron Price and Erin Snyder
• Replaces old Approach database
• Faster, leaner, cleaner
• Prototype for upcoming International Database
  conversion

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November 2006 AAS Calendar Page

• The 2006 AAS calendar will also include important
  AAVSO dates
• Fellowship Deadline March 31
• Assistantship Deadline April 28
• Spring Meeting May 5-6
• Founding Date October 10, 1911
• Annual Meeting October 27-28

Through the support of Tom Williams, each AAVSO
member will receive a copy of the 2006 AAS
calendar
Thanks to Tom for his generosity in sponsoring
the AAVSO page and the additional calendars!
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The Variable Star Index (VSX)

• Program by Chris Watson
• Search for variable stars near given coordinates
  (most available catalogs)
• Modify variable star info (period, type,)
• Add new variable stars
• Links to other sites (images, light curves)
• Future!

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Automated Chart Plotter

• Program by Michael Koppleman (Clockwork Active
  Media Systems)
• Initial release in a few months
• Full interactive chart generation, multiple
  scales, orientation
• Easy to add new objects
• Will replace all of the web charts

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Robotic Telescopes

• Membership benefit
• Will be part of upcoming members-only section of
  website
• Observation request form will be available shortly

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ISS-AT

• Described by Barry Beaman yesterday
• C14 plus Paramount, ST9
• Time available soon

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Sonoita Ridge Observatory (SRO)

• Operated by John Gross partners Dirk Terrell,
  Walt Cooney and AAVSO
• C14, Paramount, STL-1001E

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LLNL/San Diego

• Tim Castellano (TransitSearch)
• 10 LX200 Robodome ST7
• Located at SDAA Tierra del Sol site near Mexican
  border flat, 3710ft elevation
• AAVSO will get some time on this telescope in
  exchange for coordination

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3rd High Energy Astrophysics Workshop

• Held March in conjunction with Spring meeting
• Hosted by AAVSO, NMSU, Sonoma State University,
  MSFC
• Beginning/advanced CCD workshops, plus
  high-energy talks
• Swift is working!

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Pécs PhD School/Hungary

• September 4-10, 2005
• 62 young PhD candidates
• lecture about pro-am collaborations and the AAVSO

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Hungarian Amateurs

• Impromptu visit at Pécs on Friday Sept 9
• Slides shown of Atilla Mizsers visit to U.S. for
  the 75th anniversary
• Visit to Budapest Aug 2006 during IAU

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Meteor (YEAR) Telescope Meeting

• Hungarian equivalent to Stellafane
• Atilla Mizser
• MCSE (Hungarian Astronomical Association)

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Volunteers

• Essential to the running of the AAVSO
• HQ volunteers like Arthur Ritchie and Carl
  Feehrer help when extra hands are necessary
• Many needs - landscaping, secretarial, data
  entry, computers, legal, etc.
• Consider contributing your time, whether local or
  remote

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Thank you!

• All of our volunteers through the year
• Staff for just about everything
• Council for their guidance
• Observers, without whom our contribution to the
  community would be far less
• Members, one and all, for your support