Image of the day

Captured by
Terry Wood

Jupiter (clearer) Nov 5th 2023 w/Mewlon 180c

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Anyone do any real science from home?

Started by Chad Cummins, 02/17/2010 04:45PM
Posted 02/17/2010 04:45PM Opening Post
I am just curious if anyone in this group is doing any spectographic analysis or anything that they publish. Variable stars? Just wondering really if outside of comets what else people work on or discover...
Posted 02/17/2010 05:15PM #1
Chad Cummins said:

I am just curious if anyone in this group is doing any spectographic analysis or anything that they publish. Variable stars? Just wondering really if outside of comets what else people work on or discover...

I sure don't, but check this out from regular Astromart contributor Anthony Ayiomamitis:

http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Photometry.htm

Make sure you check out his astrophotos too and his Analemma project too. Anthony's landscape/astro compositions are absolutely the best.

http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Solar-Analemma.htm

Jim
Posted 02/17/2010 06:40PM #2
Chad Cummins said:

I am just curious if anyone in this group is doing any spectographic analysis or anything that they publish. Variable stars? Just wondering really if outside of comets what else people work on or discover...

Sure. Sky and Tel ran an article last year on significant contributions by amateurs to the search for extraterrestrial planets. Califiornia amateur Ron Bissinger (a really nic guy, BTW) was one who analysed data on transits, IIRC.
Bob
Posted 02/17/2010 06:45PM #3
I know many people who do. Some of them regularly contribute to scientific journals with data from their backyard observatories.

I am trying to get involved in that.

I think the chief tasks of amateur astronomers seems to be asteroid rotations, variable star timing, and occultations.

Check out the Society for Astronomical Sciences.

http://www.socastrosci.org/

Check out Buchheim "The Sky is Your Laboratory" book for more.

Alex
Posted 02/18/2010 01:06AM | Edited 02/18/2010 02:43AM #4
The AAVSO is largely amateurs, I believe, and these folks:
http://www.cometwatch.com/
have had some success with discovering supernovae among other things.

Wish I had the time!

Sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train.
--John Milton

Posted 02/18/2010 03:05PM #5
Hi Chad,

Apart from what has already been mentioned, another good one is the Center for Backyard Astrophisics. They do a lot of work on cataclysmic variables.

There is also another one majoring in exoplanet transits. Sorry but I cannot remember the website at the moment, but a google search should find it. Lots of interesting work being done there.

One of the biggest changes I see in the past 10 years has been the opening up of new research areas for backyarders with all the wonderful new toys available!

Cheers,

Maurice

* Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a day.
* Teach a man to use the internet and he won't bother you for weeks.
Posted 02/19/2010 09:26PM | Edited 02/19/2010 09:29PM #6
I used to, as a former active member of the ALPO (Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers) I was a contributor to the Luna Incognita Project of the 1980's that helped map the Moons' South Pole Region & thus completed mapping of the Moon. An area about the size of Colorado that had insufficent photography during the Apollo missions due to not being sun-lit, nor had been previously visible from the Earth since Galileos' time due to cyclic librations, finally presented itself for occasional viewing. For several years I contributed detailed drawings & high-resoluton film photographs while concentrating on the regions least observed due to pre-dawn time windows & low Winter temperatures & had my work published in the ALPOs' quarterly Journal for distribution to professional Astronomers worldwide. This was the region NASA has more recently sent missions to for water-ice exploration (vital to any future manned lunar base station). My fellow Amateurs' efforts in mapping the last uncharted region of the Moon was a cover-story feature in Sky & Telescopes' 50th Aniversary issue of November, 1991. I'm very proud of this accomplishment. Even today, backyard Amateur contributors to ALPO are a mainstay in on-going planetary research & monitoring.
Posted 02/20/2010 01:09PM #7
Astromarter David Dixon's jornada observatory seems to be home based and he seems to focus on NEO's, having discovered several.

Jon
Posted 02/27/2010 04:45AM | Edited 02/28/2010 03:19PM #8
Chad:

Check out the Journal of Double Star Observations (Google JDSO). You will find an international community with mostly amateurs supported by pros who do all sorts of interesting stuff with double stars. This is a very satisfying area for amateur research leading to actual publication. Reading JDSO will give you an idea of what is "up" in this field of research that is very open to amateurs with modest (or not) equipment.

Clear skies, Ed
Posted 02/27/2010 07:06PM #9
If you are in the California area in May, here is a good Pro-am symposium on what amateurs can do and are doing in the way of science from their backyards.

I have been to a couple and can highly recomend both the symposium and the preceeding workshops.

http://www.socastrosci.org/Files/symposium.htm

Cheers

Maurice

* Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a day.
* Teach a man to use the internet and he won't bother you for weeks.