MUSIC IS MY SOUL

Another interesting outreach initiative from the AAVSO is the Speakers Bureau. The Speakers Bureau is a service established for people and groups looking for enthusiastic, knowledgeable speakers to provide informative presentations for astronomy clubs, star parties, banquets, Scout Troops, Astronomy Day activities and other public and private astronomy functions.

You can see a list of the available speakers, along with the list of topics they can cover here. This is only a list of topics the speakers have spoken to in the past. If you're looking for something specific, just ask. We can probably accommodate you.

Most speakers are willing to travel a reasonable distance, generally two hours drive from home, free of charge. Reimbursement for speaking engagements requiring more miles and time can be negotiated on an individual basis with the speakers themselves. The speakers' home town and distance they will travel are included on the web page.

To request a speaker for your astronomical function simply send an email to aavso at aavso dot org with 'Speakers Bureau' in the title. We will put you in touch with the individual you request or suggest one for you.

Some of the speakers from the bureau and I will be giving talks at this years Astronomical League Convention (ALCon 2009) in New York, NY this August. If you are going to attend, look me up. I'm always glad to get to know fellow astronomers.


If you are unable to get a speaker for your event due to time, money or geographical challenges, AAVSO also offers a library of ready-made PowerPoint presentations you can use to give a talk yourself. These are available free for download from the AAVSO Education and Outreach Pages.

I scan the new astrophysics papers regularly. I almost always find something I end up downloading and reading, either right then and there, or later when I have time to concentrate. Rarely do I stumble across a paper that I can't take my eyes away from, like a great novel. One of those times when, forsaking all else, you must get to the last page.

Yesterday I found a great paper. What I was most pleased with was the fact it was written in plain English, with good grammar and organization. I understood every bit of it from start to end! That almost never happens. I couldn't stop reading it.

I don't have a PhD in astronomy or physics. I do this because I love it, period. So I often find myself part way into a paper on some astrophysical phenomena that the author is trying to explain, but no lights are going on in my brain. Either the subject is too technical for me to grasp, or the author is writing about things at a level only the top five experts in the world would ever understand. Add the poor English skills of foreign scientists writing in a second language and things can get ugly fast.

At some point I have to decide to either suck it up and plow through, hoping that a light will come on somewhere in the process, or skim through the rest to see if anything interesting develops with the plot.

Rarely do I find myself whooping it up and commenting out loud about the paper in my hands.

Okay, enough teasing. The paper is Absolute Magnitudes of Dwarf Novae: Murmurs of Period Bounce by Joe Patterson. Obviously, the subject appeals to me because dwarf novae are my special area of interest. But let me quote you some examples of why I was so impressed with this paper.

The first paragraph:
"Distance is the sine qua non of astrophysics. A distance estimate is required to convert flux to luminosity, and stellar physics is all about luminosity, not flux. Unfortunately, distances to cataclysmic variables are particularly difficult to estimate, because the dominant light source is not a star, but an accretion disk- preventing straightforward application of physical methods developed for single stars."

That will never be stated more clearly, ever. Yet it has a conversational tone to it that invites you in to take a look around. Remember, this is a scientific paper!

There are some other gems near the beginning that particularly caught my attention.

"In the 1980's available data on dwarf nova eruptions consisted of a blend of photographic and visual magnitudes. But now we have access to searchable variable star records, especially that of the AAVSO. The human eye is the ideal detector for this purpose, since it is immune to changes in technology, and used by thousands of observers. Furthermore, the central wavelengths of the eye and the commonly used Johnson V filter are similar; and both detectors are broad enough to render line emission insignificant."

He gives praise to the observations of amateur observers, the AAVSO and explains why visual observations are scientifically valuable all in one breath! I have a new hero.

I won't spoil it by giving away the end, and if you want to find out what period bouncers are you're going to have to read the paper.

I'm going to print it out on fine paper, have it bound in a nice little cover, and get Joe to autograph it for me when I see him in Tucson later this month at the CV conference, 'Wild Stars in the Old West.'

One of the best things about going to these meetings is you learn what astronomers are really looking at, researching, observing with space telescopes and how much the AAVSO is actually appreciated by the professional community.

There were AAVSO light curves in at least one out of three papers given here every day this week. Astronomers using sophisticated space telescopes and 8 meter telescopes on the ground are using AAVSO light curves of novae, recurrent novae, dwarf novae, symbiotic variables and all manner of CVs in their research.

The paper Brad Schaefer gave on recurrent novae was a virtual smorgasboard of historical AAVSO data. His research would be impossible without us, and he says so enthusiastically in the interview I did with him for the podcast. He has a list of five RN that he predicts will blow up in the next five to ten years, and T Pyx is NOT one of them. He is quite sure it will be the monitoring of these stars by amateurs that will result in the timely notification needed to alert astronomers to the rare opportunities these events present.

The professional CV community has given me a lot of one on one ideas to bring to amateurs about what it is they need and want, and how we can contribute in a meaningful way to their research. Steve Howell, Boris Gaensicke and Paula Szkody, talked with me one on one about what amateurs can do to help and what they have already contributed to the cause.

Personally, I learned a lot at this meeting. I was pretty fuzzy on the current hypothesis on pre-CV evolution, and the difference between symbiotic variables and common envelope binaries. I have a much clearer picture of why population studies are so important to CV
research. I was talking with Arne after the last session and telling him how by Thursday I was even beginning to understand x-ray light curves and recognizing emission, absorption, H alpha and beta lines in optical spectrum. I'm beginning to wonder how many spousal permission units it will cost me to buy a spectrograph!

I have a pretty current understanding now of what the core issues are that CV astronomers are trying to untangle, and what its gonna take to get them there. The exciting thing is WE CAN HELP. There is still a lot for amateurs to do with dwarf novae, symbiotics, recurrent novae (we practically own this field!), novae (lots of interest in novae!), and magnetic variables.

Even better, this was perfect timing, because we will probably launch the new CV Section this year after the spring meeting (if not sooner). I was able to rub elbows with all the top researchers in the field and let them know what we have planned and they are enthusiastic about the role we can play.

I got to spend some time with some of the key players from Japan who contribute to CVnet; and as usual, I was impressed with the way professional astronomers like Joe Patterson, John Thorstensen and Boris Gaensicke are willing to share the love of VSO and advise amateurs on how they can contribute to science.

It was awesome. And now my batteries and enthusiasm are fully charged. I'm glad to be home so I can get back to observing some of these wild stars myself!