gidion Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Hi All,Just wondering whether there are any amateur projects/websites for the budding astronomer to contribute to?Thinking along the lines of where large numbers of amateurs collect and contribute data sets for scientists Much like the SETI program i guess (but using telescopes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acey Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Comet and supernova searching are the first things that come to mind, also monitoring of variable stars, meteor showers. Can't offer any websites right now but I'm sure someone else can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 I think Galaxy Zoo is along those lines:http://www.galaxyzoo.org/It involves using amateurs to classify galaxies from deep sky photographs. The basic skills needed are straightforward so I believe that anybody can participate.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callump Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 The British Astronomical Association are involved in a number of pro-am projects, especially for variable stars and asteroids but also mars, jupiter, moon...You would be best to get in touch with the relevant section director in the first instance. You don't necessarily need to be a BAA member to contribute observations./callump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acey Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Galaxy Zoo is brilliant - I just signed up and classified a few. I could easily get hooked. I'd heard of it thanks to the galaxy Hanny's Voorwerp, which seems to have made it's discoverer something of a celebrity.Hanny?s Voorwerp | Official website of discoverer Hanny van Arkel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Ritchie Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 In the area I work in professionally* there's certainly useful work done by amateurs. In general it's very hard to get anything other than sparse spectroscopic monitoring (due to lack of available telescope time) and contemporaneous amateur photometry can be very useful in tracking what's going on with these objects. *evolved, high-mass stars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Ritchie Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Can't offer any websites right now but I'm sure someone else can. The AAVSO is a very good place to start (sure there's a UK equivalent - BAA maybe). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rblunden Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 There's also Citizen SkyAbout Citizen Sky | Citizen Sky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gidion Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 Great options.Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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