Our Astronomy

I volunteer for the AAVSO (The American Association of Variable Star Observers) by visually gathering data points on variable stars that they use for plotting light curves of the stars and for studying them in other ways. The information is used by academics and scientists all over the world.
It is looking now like there may be a few clear nights coming up for me Wednesday and Thursday.
It says the title for this topic "Astronomy" is to short and must be ranging between 10 and 255 characters. I'll try making it Our Astronomy.

That works.

I haven't been that active in astronomy here lately, I'm afraid.

Good luck both Wednesday and Thursday night.

Are there people that approach you at night where you are?

No, we're pretty isolated out here, though we still have some light pollution from town.

I'm going to move this to the new Astronomy and Space News forum.

sherlew wrote:I'm going to move this to the new Astronomy and Space News forum.

It's OK with me

Hey you flipped the thread right way. Thanks

Here are 2 screenshots of a light cure that I helped with for the AAVSO of the variable star R Lep.

seer wrote:Hey you flipped the thread right way. Thanks

You're welcome. Hopefully I can get the others oriented the correct way as well soon.

seer wrote:

Here are 2 screenshots of a light cure that I helped with for the AAVSO of the variable star R Lep.

It's cool seeing your name there.

The 2 gold crosses on the light curve are my entries.

Cool

The stars that I will try for tonight will be in Ursa Major. I hope the moon behaves.

I hope so too.

I just got back in and I was able to find and get two readings on stars new to me. They are Z UMa & VY UMa. I will send in my findings tomorrow.

I sent my findings in. I never look at the light curves until after I log my findings. When I looked at the light curve for VY UMa it looked squirrely. Tried to do some checking on the star. Looks like it's doing more than one thing and one of the things is fast. You probably need to adjust the parameters of the light curve generator in order to see a curve.
Tonight is to be clear but windy and the moon is creeping east so no telescope. Someone should make a riddle about the moon. It is the only thing that I know of the moves in opposite directions at the same time. I'm thinking about waiting until much later at night and trying for R Hya with binoculars

A riddle about the moon would be great.

I came up with one and already posted it on the AAVSO forum. You know the answer so please don't reply to it there.

My riddle is still up on the AAVSO forum but no one has replied yet. Are they ignoring it because it is to simple?

I'm not sure. They might just be doing other things as well.

I just got back in. I was out trying to get my first telescope reading of a variable star namely R Leo. I knew clouds were coming one way and the super moon the other and I wasn't sure which way R Leo was heading on its curve. Well there was to much against me and I lost. I was in the right spot to see it but didn't.
I did look at the super moon with my 7x35 binoculars. It was in the south east and I am use to seeing it west of the meridian. It was oriented differently. It must rotate as it crosses the sky.

I knew that the moon was tidally locked, but looks a bit different now and then, so ran a search and found out that it kind of rocks across the sky in a movement called libration:

It is tidally locked and I did know libration but that is just slight. This was different with Mare Crisium seeming more north than it should be.

Hmm, interesting. Maybe the libration has changed a bit from what it usually does.