Eta Aquila

Arwen, I am a 7th and 8th grade science teacher. My son began making variable star estimates at 9 years old. As a teacher, I am very proud of you!!! I am really glad that your dad helped you. Have you stared back to school yet? If so, I hope you tell your teacher about your activity as a citizen scientist and Citizen Sky. Keep up the good work! Chris Stephan Science teacher Avon Park Middle School Avon Park, Florida

Hello Arwen Well done. I still remember how exciting it was (and it often still is) when I made my first observations as teenager in the early eighties. If you want to check your estimates after your observations, you can either take a look at the observationsalready submitted tothe AAVSO International DBvia the AAVSO quick look file (QLF) interface: http://www.aavso.org/data/ql/ or plot the light curve with the AAVSO light curve generator (LCG) interface: http://www.aavso.org/data/lcg/ For eta Aql and your estimates it will be: http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/newql.pl?name=eta+Aql&mycode=RAFA&startdate=2455053&output=html and: http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/lcg.pl?auid=eta+Aql&lastdays=40&start=&stop=&obscode=RAFA&obscode_symbol=2&visual=on&v=on&unvalidated=on&obstotals=on&grid=on&pointsize=1&width=800&height=600&mag1=3.1&mag2=4.6&mean=1.0 Your estimates are right in line with the others close in time. eta Aql is a Cepheid with a period of ~ 7.18 days. So it changes its brightness relative fast when compared to a mira star but not as fast as a short periodic eclipsing binary during an eclipse. Therefore one should check the own estimates with star like eta Aqljust to those others estimates relative close in time (say about +/- 1 day at most). Arwen, if you continue to estimate eta Aql regularly every clear night for the rest of the season, you can later reduce your estimates to a single period and plot a nice light curve (LC) of eta Aql just from your own estimates. Then you probably can also derive a time of maximum (ToM) for eta Aql from your own LC that can get published e.g. in the JAAVSO or IBVS. Clear skies Wolfgang

Hi Arwen! Congratulations! Going through the Ten Stars observations for the Certificate is a wonderful achievement! Using binoculars is a great next step. Imade my first variable star observations, with binoculars, about eight years ago and now Ifind myself lucky enough to be working with the very people who are doing this project. I think I first started learning about variable stars when I was 13, so you have me beat in age! Keep it up, Arwen, and keep posting! Some of the data I've gathered has been used by research astromomers studying stars with the Hubble Space Telescope. Your's might be, too! ---- Richard 'Doc' Kinne Somerville, MA

Congratulations on completing the training program! As autumn turns to winter you'll see there are some other fun stars to observe in the 10-Star Tutorial. Observing variable stars can be a lot of fun. Keep up the good work. Mike Simonsen

Hey, Arwen! I think you may be the first person to get all 10 stars. :) We are working on the certificate design as we speak and hope to have it ready to mail to you very soon. We'll be in touch! In the meantime, take a look at the graph below. It consists of observations by other people of Eta Aquila. Your data is marked by the blue crosses. Look at how well your 3 observations match the others. You made an observation when it was bright, then two more when it was faint and they all fall along the overall variation of the star (denoted by the red line). This is much better than I did for my first few observations. :) Way to go and I hope you can keep an eye on epsilon Aurigae for us over the next year!

Hello, astro_arwen here. I thank-you for your comment, also I havn't started school again yet, though I am missing it. Also,I was intending to do an observation on Mare Criseum, though it was raining, very disapointing. Though, I will tell my teacher this year am a participant in this project. clear skies, Arwen

Hello, Thankyou for your comment, by the way, I atempted to observe Mare Crisium and Eta Aquila, though it rained, I found that very sanddening, oh yes I forgot to tell you, I am very happy you gave me those links that I could use to help me, they have been a great deal of importance to me,though, I have been thinking they may be hard to first understand, though I've enjoyed using them. sunny days, Arwen

That is really intersting,that my data is truly part of a collective of many observations. Very happy about the accuracy of my work aswell, thank you for showing me that! clear skies, Arwen

Hello everyone,guess what , I came up with the same mag. as my father, astro_carl, isn't that interesting? I find it is. I estimated 3.9, it was sept 19 ( same date, same time) 9:27, it was really great I said its about 3.9 and then he gave me this wow look, I'm thinking, what did I do? He said, I was just about to say that, we both chuckled, but first I observed Bootes and Ursa Minor, for RASC the Explore The Universe certificate, pretty big night. Last thing I'd like to say,Clear Skies,Arwen (-;

Hi! I just observed Eta Aquila again, for the first time this year.I thought it was 3.6 mag. I've been really busy lately,but I can't wait toget myself to wake up in the morning to observe Eps Aur. Another big thing is thatI have been a member for a year and one week now, so I'm very happy about that! I also wanted to tell Rebecca a quick thank-you for my certfcate, it was so exciting when I first saw it! Have a nice day! Bye, Arwen.

Way to go Arwen! I know what you mean about being busy, it's tough to find as much time as we'd like to give to observing but we do what we can, when we can. Congrats on your certificate, I just got mine too! It's a nice treat to see in your e-mail isn't it? Keep up the great work! Maurice

Hi Arwen, I'm glad the certificate arrived safely. What a great example you are - not just for other young women out there but for all of us! Happy one year Citizen Sky Anniversary!! Clear Skies, Rebecca

Arwen, Great job. I'm proud of you. I am a middle school science teacher in Florida. It's great to see young people doing astronomy observing. Keep up the good work. Chris Stephan Robert Clyde Observatory Sebring, Florida USA

I also noticed something, I think, but correct me if I'm wrong. I think, you wrote your siganture on it, hand-written and my dad got the printer image. Hahaha. (-: By the way, I'm almost twelve now, well, that was a bit of an exaggeration. still eight more months. Anyways, and I been observing sice early nine. Wow! When I'm twelve, it'll be my fourth year. Huh. Clear skies, Arwen (-:

I also noticed something, I think, but correct me if I'm wrong. I think, you wrote your siganture on it, hand-written and my dad got the printer image. Hahaha. (-: By the way, I'm almost twelve now, well, that was a bit of an exaggeration. still eight more months. Anyways, and I been observing since early nine. Wow! When I'm twelve, it'll be my fourth year. Huh. Clear skies, Arwen (-:

I also noticed something, I think, but correct me if I'm wrong. I think, you wrote your siganture on it, hand-written and my dad got the printer image. Hahaha. (-: By the way, I'm almost twelve now, well, that was a bit of an exaggeration. still eight more months. Anyways, and I been observing since early nine. Wow! When I'm twelve, it'll be my fourth year. Huh. Clear skies, Arwen (-: