Blogs / Aaron Price's blog / What's on Tap?
What's on Tap?
Hi, all. The second year of Citizen Sky has just begun. Here are some of the things we have afoot...
The first year of the project was dedicated to training to observe the star and report your observations. We also worked on the site infrastructure. Since the funding came through late, we had to push a lot of what we originally had planned for years 1 and 2 - into year 1 alone. This meant it was a hectic year, but it now means years 2-3 can be at a more leisurely , natural pace.
This year we plan on focusing on setting up the teams so you can do your own analysis and research. We are going to create a forum soon dedicated to the discussion of projects for teams. We brainstormed at the recent workshop and came up with about a dozen ideas off the top of our head (and a few proto-teams were formed!). Remember, each team is going to get a professional liaison who will help answer the technical questions. But the most important person is the team leader. This needs to be a person with initiative, drive and patience. Remember the ultimate product will hopefully be a publication in a peer reviewed journal that will have an issue dedicated to Citizen Sky.
The eclipse will likely end near the end of the next year of Citizen Sky (our FY is Sep. 1 - Aug. 30). Starting late this winter or early spring the star will begin its rapid climb back to normality. This is likely going to be a very quick trip, so expect a very exciting few months. In addition to the eclipse, remember there is a steady background variation to epsilon Aurigae that we are trying to understand. So keep observing all the time. And check out the current light curve.
Speaking of which, it is starting to become an easy-to-observe star again. It rises in the east just after sunset and is pretty high in the sky by midnight. As the days become shorter (for us northern observers) it will rise earlier and earlier, thus become even easier to observe. If you haven't picked it up yet for this observing season, please go out and begin observing again! (I just went out a couple of weeks ago for the first time since June and had forgotten how easy and fun it was.)
Side note: One of the current teams is working on a 10-Star Tutorial for southern hemisphere participants. That should be ready soon, so stay tuned!
The video of the sessions at the recent workshop will be online soon. They will be a good starting point for anyone interested in learning about data analysis, choosing research questions and writing research papers.
The planetarium trailer has been distributed to the major planetarium manufacturers, who are making versions that work on their equipment to distribute to their clients. They are also being listed in the various show libraries that planetaria use. If you would like a copy, contact us. We also have copies at the AAVSO that we can share. We hope to get a list of who is showing it to put in our event calendars. We saw it on the big screen at the 2nd Citizen Science workshop and it was so much different than seeing on a tiny YouTube screen. The disk was especially impressive. Don't miss out!
We have a new web developer at the AAVSO. So expect some tweaks to the web site over the next 3-6 months. We also hope to move to a faster server.
On a personal note: I will defend my dissertation on November 2. The title is "The Effect of a Large-Scale, Online Citizen Science Project on the Scientific Literacy of its Participants." Remember the surveys some of you took when you joined the project? That data makes up part of the dissertation. I also did some analysis of the discussion forums and analyzed our web server logs. We are going to try to broadcast the defense on U-Stream (or Google Video Live, if it is unveiled by then...). We'll post an announcement a couple of weeks ago. If you are interested in seeing what your data has taught us, stop by.
Brian, Rebecca and I have all agreed to pay closer attention to the forums. So feel free to post discussion ideas and ask questions there. And, of course, help us spread the word!
The first year of the project was dedicated to training to observe the star and report your observations. We also worked on the site infrastructure. Since the funding came through late, we had to push a lot of what we originally had planned for years 1 and 2 - into year 1 alone. This meant it was a hectic year, but it now means years 2-3 can be at a more leisurely , natural pace.
This year we plan on focusing on setting up the teams so you can do your own analysis and research. We are going to create a forum soon dedicated to the discussion of projects for teams. We brainstormed at the recent workshop and came up with about a dozen ideas off the top of our head (and a few proto-teams were formed!). Remember, each team is going to get a professional liaison who will help answer the technical questions. But the most important person is the team leader. This needs to be a person with initiative, drive and patience. Remember the ultimate product will hopefully be a publication in a peer reviewed journal that will have an issue dedicated to Citizen Sky.
The eclipse will likely end near the end of the next year of Citizen Sky (our FY is Sep. 1 - Aug. 30). Starting late this winter or early spring the star will begin its rapid climb back to normality. This is likely going to be a very quick trip, so expect a very exciting few months. In addition to the eclipse, remember there is a steady background variation to epsilon Aurigae that we are trying to understand. So keep observing all the time. And check out the current light curve.
Speaking of which, it is starting to become an easy-to-observe star again. It rises in the east just after sunset and is pretty high in the sky by midnight. As the days become shorter (for us northern observers) it will rise earlier and earlier, thus become even easier to observe. If you haven't picked it up yet for this observing season, please go out and begin observing again! (I just went out a couple of weeks ago for the first time since June and had forgotten how easy and fun it was.)
Side note: One of the current teams is working on a 10-Star Tutorial for southern hemisphere participants. That should be ready soon, so stay tuned!
The video of the sessions at the recent workshop will be online soon. They will be a good starting point for anyone interested in learning about data analysis, choosing research questions and writing research papers.
The planetarium trailer has been distributed to the major planetarium manufacturers, who are making versions that work on their equipment to distribute to their clients. They are also being listed in the various show libraries that planetaria use. If you would like a copy, contact us. We also have copies at the AAVSO that we can share. We hope to get a list of who is showing it to put in our event calendars. We saw it on the big screen at the 2nd Citizen Science workshop and it was so much different than seeing on a tiny YouTube screen. The disk was especially impressive. Don't miss out!
We have a new web developer at the AAVSO. So expect some tweaks to the web site over the next 3-6 months. We also hope to move to a faster server.
On a personal note: I will defend my dissertation on November 2. The title is "The Effect of a Large-Scale, Online Citizen Science Project on the Scientific Literacy of its Participants." Remember the surveys some of you took when you joined the project? That data makes up part of the dissertation. I also did some analysis of the discussion forums and analyzed our web server logs. We are going to try to broadcast the defense on U-Stream (or Google Video Live, if it is unveiled by then...). We'll post an announcement a couple of weeks ago. If you are interested in seeing what your data has taught us, stop by.
Brian, Rebecca and I have all agreed to pay closer attention to the forums. So feel free to post discussion ideas and ask questions there. And, of course, help us spread the word!
