Lowcountry Stargazers

Kevin recently attended the first Citizen Sky workshop held in Chicago.  The workshop was held at the Adler Planetarium from August 4th through August 7th.  The AAVSO played a major role in establishing this campaign in conjunction with the IYA 2009.  In all, over 65 professional and amateurs alike from over 22 states and 4 countries attended!

 

 

If you are not familiar with the Citizen Sky Project, I would highly recommend visiting their website.  This project is an awesome opportunity for anyone, no matter your experience or interest, to participate in real scientific inquiry.  There will be more updates to follow, and Kevin will be organizing many public outreach events over the next couple of years to get as many citizens as possible to help scientist and astronomers try to understand the intriguing nature of Epsilon Aurigae.

 

 

Epsilon Aurigae is an eclipsing binary variable that was first noted in the early 1800s.  This is remarkable in itself since the star dims then brightens every 27.5 years!  Furthermore, the duration of minimum lasts for almost 600 days!  For over 175 years, some of the biggest names in astronomy have tried to tackle the problem of understanding the variable nature of this star.

 

 

Astronomers need help from the public at large to provide observations of this eclipse which may be currently underway.  Epsilon Aurigae is a very bright star, and does not require any special instrumentation to observe, even from a heavily light polluted area.