Hi folks. We had a good CV Section meeting yesterday. About 25 folks in attendance with the US, Europe, and South America represented. Several professional astronomers also joined us. Thank you. Here's a summary of the discussions. I'd appreciate it if those in attendance could add or subtract from this brief summary where needed in replies.
Clearest skies,
Walt
Selection of targets. Long and Short Term Campaign possibilities.
Lots of discussion on pro-am collaborations and the general issue of target selection for amateurs.
Paula Szkody mentioned observations of flares seen in Intermediate Polars. Recent TESS data show these to be apparently random and lasting as much as several days. Regular amateur monitoring of IP's for these events would be important data. This could be a potential AAVSO CV section campaign.
Paula also noted that CV's with pulsating white dwarfs are an option for a campaign. GW Lib is the prototype and the brightest. At -25 Dec, it is difficult to follow for long periods from much of the northern hemisphere.
Other ideas are out there amongst professional astronomers if we can make the contact. Networking with the astronomical community can identify these opportunities.
Enrique Gomez and Mel Blake discussed their observing programs with students at the their respective universities. Their programs have not previously focused on CV's but they would welcome the chance to participate in CV work. Walt will work with them offline to discuss possible targets.
Brian Kloppenborg walked through using the AAVSO Target Tool and VSX as a way of finding targets to work.
Brian Skiff noted that we could have a regularly updated list of the CV's where pros are actively doing spectrosopic work. The photometry is complimentary and welcome.
Learning
Brian Kloppenborg is happy to work with professionals to provide learning opportunities. Let him know particular subjects we are interested in.
Webinars are one delivery method. Brad Schaefer's recent webinar on T CrB was very successful. All agreed that using the first 30 minutes of some of the CV Section meetings would be a good fit too. Walt and Shawn will invite speakers to some of the meetings, balancing this with the need to have general discussion at all meetings.
Other Opportunities
Several discussed consistency of recognition of amateur work by the pros. There is significant variability in this. Nikola Antonov and Josch Hambsch shared some success stories.
Brian Kloppenborg noted that in the last year, about 70% of professional astronomers followed the AAVSO policy on recognition of member work.
Meeting Recording and Publication
There were different opinions amongst the group about whether meetings should be recorded and posted to the AAVSOHQ YouTube channel. The decision was made not to post the video so that folks were comfortable actively participating. Walt will put together notes from the meeting to publish instead.
Future Meetings
Frequency of meetings was judged best as either bimonthly or quarterly. Walt will schedule the next meeting for about two months from now.
More support for having speakers for a portion of some of the meetings. Brian Skiff will reach out to Dr. John Thorstensen to see if he could join us for the next meeting to discuss T CrB work and amateur involvement.