The Mark I Eyeball Team

Note: This team is now closed to new members. However, we'll still accept members if you can show that you are very enthusiastic about the project and have a specific skill/idea to contribute.

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Lots of factors affect the precision and accuracy of visual variable star estimates. We will examine all visual data in the AAVSO International Database, including Citizen Sky data, to determine how various factors affect the precision and accuracy of visual variable star observations. Example factors are observer experience, age, lunar phase, altitude in the sky, properties of the variable star and its comparison stars, etc. This is essentially a follow up to this poster (4MB PDF) paper presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society and this post in our forums.We anticipate the result being a paper submitted to a major astronomy journal with all contributing team members as coauthors. This will be an important project as visual data is the backbone of variable star research, yet it has never been systematically researched. We also anticipate this project taking 1-2 years. We need team members with one or more of the following skill sets:

• Ability to do all-sky CCD photometry to 1% accuracy
• Advanced skill and experience (decades) with visual observing
• SQL database skills
• Perl/Python or other scripting skills
• Understanding of statistics

We're open to team members with other applicable skill sets. If you have an idea for a contribution please feel free to apply. Just be warned this is a fairly advanced project. We will likely limit team size to something around ten members. So include in your application the specific item you think you can contribute to the project.