In September 1985, as an early Christmas present, my parents gave me a 4” Rich Field Newtonian telescope (the Edmund Astroscan). This launched me into amateur astronomy with a good beginner telescope. At this time Halley’s comet was sparking a lot of public interest on its journey to the inner solar system. As an added bonus, my father had just worked as an electronics technician on some of the electrical components for the Galileo Spacecraft at RCA in Somerville. From RCA pamphlets about the Galeleo satellite I read of Galileo the astronomer who produced one on the first telescopes which he used to discover the four moons of Jupiter. This and other observations Galileo made unfortunately did not make the Church authorities at that time very happy, but 400yrs later I was marveling at Galileo’s Jupiter drawings and now realized that I had an instrument more power full then his. Well to me it seemed that everything worth discovering was probably already discovered but for fun I always took out a notepad and recorded what I saw through my little scope, drawing my interpretation of double stars, comets, planets, and galaxies.
As I became older and learned more about astronomy, eventually buying a 8"SCT after college, and before marriage, I thought of the idea of some day contributing to amateur research. At the time it appeared that the only interesting research was hunting for Asteroids. Unfortunately I would not have the money to do this. In truth I was just happy to afford an 8"SCT (Celestar 8) with a Telvue plossil. After getting married my wife and I moved to Hillsborough, just down the road from route 206.
This was a far cry from skies of Glen Gardner where I grew up. At Hillsbourgh deepsky objects were a little washed out and there was always turbulence on the planets and moon, probably from route 206. But my wife was very generous in letting me travel to NJAA, especially since we only had one car (and still do).
Then I read an article in December 98 Sky and Telescope magazine about RX Andromeda, a U GEM dwarf nova which varies in brightness from 10th magnitude to 14th magnitude around every two weeks or so. Theoretically U Gem dwarf nova are thought to consist of two stars where the denser companion pulls matter off the other companion giving an eruption. U GEM dwarf nova show eruptions periodically. RX AND has another added component in that it comes to stand still every now and then at certain magnitudes, a characteristic similar to the prototype variable Z CAM. Hence RX can be described best as a U GEM star with Z CAM properties. RX would have a very noticeable change in a two-week period granted that it was not at standstill. The best part about it was that RX is very easy to find, just a few degrees east of M31, with four 10th magnitude stars producing a very easy to use asterism for locating RX.
After finding RX in the sky I started producing my first variable star estimates. I could not believe there was such a difference everytime I looked at RX, one week it would be a faint 14th magnitude star, the next week it would shine brightly sometimes reaching the 10th magnitude range. I enjoyed coming to my computer with my latest estimate of RX and graphing a light curve with my own data showing RX’s rise to peak brightness and then its graceful fall back to 14 magnitude. But I still had many questions. Plus could my data be put to some good use?
With a stroke of luck I happened to be at NJAA one night last year with my 8”SCT and observing RX AND when I met Jerry Mckenna, who was the right person at the right time. He was a 20yr member of AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) and really knew his stuff. Plus he was very patient with my many questions and emails about variables. Jerry soon encouraged me to start sending estimates to AAVSO and called them himself.
I was familiar with AAVSO, from reading years of astronomy magazines, but did not believe that I could contribute any serious research data because of the false believe that there was probably a large amount of people already observing variables and hence no need for more observers. Then came the shocker, AAVSO has 500 active observers of which only half are actual members.. In short the majority of the work was done by a handful of very dedicated people like Jerry who might do a thousand or more estimates a year. The good news for me was that there was still a lot of room for people like myself who wanted to make a few observations a year.
AAVSO soon gave me an observer initial, data entry program, and report-formatting program. I was soon out with my scope and AAVSO charts hunting variables. Some variables were a real challenge to find, let alone estimate, but I was having fun. As I got more experience my ability to find and estimate my target variables got better. My first monthly report contained 20 observations, pretty small compared to Jerry’s usual 100 or more observations, but I was contributing to amateur research. My observations were listed on the AAVSO website alongside AAVSO members and observers new and old. . Plus the AAVSO website was a big help with down loadable AAVSO charts, up to date estimates, and almost daily news of recent variable activity from Cataclysmics to Supernova. It is even possible to produce lightcurves showing my estimates next others of any variable in there database, all at AAVSO.org.
It soon became apparent to me that variables were very dynamic objects, always changing. Even Miras don’t act the same from year to year. When I look back now at some of my observations from last year I realize that for a few stars there was only a hand full of people looking at the same star at the same time. If we had not been observing that star than useful data for that variable may have been lost forever. It was from observing variables that I learned a lot about observational astronomy and my equipment. For example I learned how precise the human eye can measure differences in brightness (.1-.2 mag.), and to watch out for position angle error. From Hillsbourough I found that using high powers to increase contrast (225-290X), my 8”SCT could reach 13.6 –13.9 mag with no problem, and when a star was well placed on a good night, reach slightly below 14th mag. Also many nights when I would have stayed inside if looking at deepsky objects were perfectly suitable for observing variables. Less then ideal sky conditions were fine, only making the observations a little more difficult, but now I was going out almost every night. A few clouds, the moon or haze were not a problem.
I believe others can benefit from my experience. If your sky conditions are similar to mine, or you can’t drive to darker skies every time the moon is not out, then why not give variables a try. Big telescopes, small telescopes, binoculars, and even naked eye are perfectly suited for variable star observing from less then ideal sites. I was very surprised that most amateurs have never even viewed one variable, my opinion is that they don’t know what they are missing. For more information check out the AAVSO website @ AAVSO.ORG and to start an observing program read Jerry Mckenna’s article “Starting and Observing Program” in July Astronotes. If you have any further question you can email me at bill518@hotmail.com
