Skylog: Looking Up!

Mike Simonsen of the AAVSO on The Event^Horizon

Astronomy.FM is proud to welcome Mike Simonsen to The Event^Horizon at 0200UT Saturday morning, January 30 (9:00pm US EST on Friday, January 29) for a conversation with Marty Kunz about the AAVSO and variable star observing. Bring your questions and experiences to the chat room!

Mike Simonsen is the Development Director for the AAVSO. Mike coordinates the AAVSO Mentor program, helping newer observers to improve their skills. He is also a key part of the AAVSO charting program.

The AAVSO coordinates, evaluates, compiles, processes, publishes, and disseminates variable star observations to the astronomical community throughout the world. 

Membership in the AAVSO is open to anyone interested in variable stars and in contributing to the support of this valuable research — professionals, amateurs, and educators alike. Since professional astronomers often do not have the telescope time needed to follow a particular star or group of stars, the dedication of amateur astronomers is often an invaluable means of collecting information. For nearly 100 years, amateur astronomers from all over the world and from all backgrounds have contributed observations, one at a time, to make up the more than 16.9 million data points housed in the AAVSO International Database!