20042005 SemiAnnual Directors Report

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2004-2005 SemiAnnual Directors Report

• Arne A. Henden
• 94th Spring Meeting
• Las Cruces, NM
• March 25/26, 2005

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International Attendees

• Richard Huziak - Canada
• Mark Armstrong - UK
• Gary Billings - Canada
• Jaime Garcia - Argentina
• Bob Nelson - Canada

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International Attendees

• Arto Oksanen - Finland
• John ONeill - Ireland
• Vance Petriew - Canada
• John Toole - UK

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New Members Present Here

• Richard Huziak - Canada
• Susan Oatney - Kansas

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New Member SummaryOctober 1, 2004 March 1, 2005
Adult Annual 44 Sustaining
1 Members from US
28 Members from Abroad 17
TOTAL New Members 45
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New US Members by State
7
New International Members by Country
8
All Current Members by Type
Total 1093
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Membership Status ChangesOctober 1, 2004 March
1, 2005

• Annual to Sustaining 4
• Sustaining to Annual 5
• Resigned from Membership 10

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Deceased MembersOctober 1, 2004 March 1, 2005
Hans Sorensen
Farum, Denmark Noel Peattie Winters,
CA AAVSO Observer
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http//www.noelpeattie.com
Retired librarian 4 books of poetry, plus 2
posthumous works Sipapu, counter-culture
newsletter
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AAVSO Highlights October 2004 March 2005

• Completion of Validation Project

• Continued increase in AAVSO web site activity
• ? Response to 1568 AAVSO data requests
• ? New Thursday chat room
• ? Increase in light curve generator
  accesses and downloads
• ? Created 2 VSOT Season on the web site
• ? Many more charts created

• Completion of data entry for Wayne Lowders
  95K observations

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More AAVSO Highlights October 2004 March 2005

• Held 3rd High Energy Astrophysics Workshop

• Started Automatic Chart Plotter

• CompDB project nearing end of phase I

• Hired new Director!

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Website Activity Recorded from 10/2004 to 02/2005
Total Web Pages Downloaded 755,391
Average Pages Downloaded 5,002 per day
or 1 every 15 sec Average Data Transferred per
day 377 MB
Number of Individual Visitors 111,278 Average
Individuals per day 737
Most Active Day Friday Most Active Time
4 pm EST Most Inactive Day Sunday Most
Inactive Time 12 am EST
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Top Ten Downloaded Pages(Excluding the Home Page)
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Top Ten Visitors
to the AAVSO website
Network (.net) Commercial (.com) USA Educational
(.edu) Italy (.it) Japan (.jp) Australia
(.au) Canada (.ca) United Kingdom (.uk) Poland
(.pl) Netherlands (.nl) Germany (.de)
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Bottom Ten Visitors
to the AAVSO website
Peru (.pe) Ireland (.ie) Thailand (.th) Estonia
(.ee) Lithuania (.lt) Taiwan (.tw) Croatia
(.hr) Slovakia (.sk) Ukraine (.ua) Israel (.il)
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Monthly Download Statistics
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Monthly Download Statistics
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Software DownloadsOctober 1, 2004 February 28,
2005
WWZ 315 VSTelescope 70 MagPlot 203 SolObs 50
PCObs 195 HOAFun 37 TS 185 SpotPlot 31 Ch
artCD 90 CLEANest 22
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AAVSO Charts Online
The most popular day for downloading charts
Sunday The most popular hour for downloading
charts 4 pm EST
Downloaded Charts
About 248,890 Total Charts
The 5 most popular stars (in order) N Pup 04, N
Cyg 05, NGC 6946, U Ori, U Gem
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Charts Downloaded from 10/04 to 2/05
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Compare Chart Downloads
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Light Curve Generator
Curves plotted from Oct 04 Feb 05 68,552
curves Plots per day 454
Most popular stars plotted
U Gem, SS CYG, BZ Uma, IL Aqr, GK Per
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Light Curve Generatorthe past year
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All Observers by Type
Total 1771
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AAVSO Annual Observation Totals Since 1911
516, 255 (2003-2004)
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Megasteps of the AAVSO
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Requests For AAVSO Data Oct 2004 February 2005

• 1534 Requests Filled
• (1318 Online, 216 Email/Fax/Postal Mail)

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AAVSO Observer Awards for 2004

• AAVSO Observer Awards will be presented to
• 2 observers making 100,000 or more observations
• 7 observers making 50,000 or more observations
• 3 observers making 25,000 or more observations
• 12 observers making 10,000 or more observations
• 2 observers making 5,000 or more observations
• 6 observers making 2,500 or more observations
• 13 observers making 1,000 or more observations
•  

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AAVSO Director's Award for 2004

• This years recipient (a joint decision by
  Elizabeth Waagen and Arne Henden) is

Michael Simonsen
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AAVSO Publications October 2004 February 2005

• AAVSO Alert Notice, Nos. 311 313 Special PEP
  Alert Notice, No. 3
• Prepared by Elizabeth Waagen, with assistance by
  Kerriann Malatesta
•  
• AAVSO CCD Views, Nos. 325 331
• Prepared by Aaron Price and Gary Walker
•  
• AAVSO Manual for Visual Observing of Variable
  Stars - Revised Edition, January 2005
• Edited by Sara J. Beck
•   
• AAVSO Special MyNewsFlash BZ UMa Outburst
• Prepared by Aaron Price
•  
• AAVSO Variable Star of the Season
• Prepared by Kerriann Malatesta (Fall 2004) and
  John Percy (Winter 2005)

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AAVSO Publications October 2004 February 2005

• AAVSO 2005 Ephemeris for Eclipsing Binaries
• Prepared by Gerard Samolyk and Marvin E. Baldwin
•  
• AAVSO 2005 Ephemeris for RR Lyrae Stars
• Prepared by Gerard Samolyk and Marvin E. Baldwin
• AAVSO Solar Bulletin, Vol. 60, Nos. 9 - 12 Vol.
  61, No. 1
• Prepared by Carl E. Feehrer SID Reports by
  Michael Hill

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AAVSO Staff Publications October 2004
February 2005

• Campbell, P., Hill, M., Howe, R.,
  Kielkopf, J. F., Lewis, N., Mandaville, J.,
  McWilliams, A., Moos, W., Samouce, D.,
  Winkler, J., Fishman, G. J., Price, A.,
  Welch, D. L., Schnoor, P., Clerkin, A., and
  Saum, D., "SGR1806 detection of a sudden
  ionospheric disturbance," GRB Coordinates
  Network, Circular Service, 2932, 1 2005.
• Cannizzo, J. K., Shafter, A. W., and
  Waagen, E. O., Accretion Disk Instability in the
  Z Camelopardalis Stars, submitted to ApJ 2004.
• Hill, R. L. and Waagen, E. O., Outburst Energies
  and Precursors to Outbursts for SS Cyg from AAVSO
  Data, AAS 205.1908 2004.
• Laughlin, G. and Price, A., "Tis The Season to
  Find Exoplanets," Skyandtelescope.com 2004.

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AAVSO Staff Publications October 2004
February 2005

• Price, A. et al., "ASAS 0025111217.2," IAU
  Circ., 8410 2004.
• Price, A., Gary, B., Bedient, J., Cook, L.,
  Templeton, M., Pullen, C., Starkey, D.,
  Crawford, T., Corlan, R., Dvorak, S., and 23
  coauthors, "A New Cataclysmic Variable in
  Hercules," PASP, 116, 1117 2004.
• Price, A., et al., "Planetary Transits of
  TRES-1," JAAVSO, 32 (in press).
• Saladyga, M., "The AAVSO Archive Project,"
  presented at the AAVSO Annual Meeting, October,
  2004, to be published in the JAAVSO, 33 2005.
• Samus, N., Ciroi, S., et al., and Waagen, E. O.,
  V2631 Cyg N Cyg 2005, in IAU Circ., No. 8487
  2005.

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AAVSO Staff Publications October 2004
February 2005

• Schnoor, P. and Price, A., "SGR1806 optical
  transient candidates in SOHO/LASCO images," GRB
  Coordinates Network, Circular Service, 2944, 1
  2005.
• Smak, J. and Waagen, E.O., The 1985
  Superoutburst of U Geminorum. Detection of
  Superhumps, AcA, 54, 433 2004.
• Templeton, M.R. and Willson, L.A., "Mira Stars
  with Double Maxima Humps, Bumps, and
  Resonances," AAS 205.5407 2004.
• Waagen, E.O., Mattei, J.A., Pellock, R.T.,
  Beck, S.J., Davis, K., Malatesta, K.H.,
  Menali, G., Price, A., Saladyga, M.,
  Sechelski, S.T., and Templeton, M.R., The AAVSO
  International Database On-Line Nearly a Century
  of Variable Star Data at Your Fingertips!, AAS
  205.1401 2004.

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Publications with AAVSO Assistance October 2004
February 2005

• Boyd, D., "Detection and measurement in the
  V-band of the white dwarf spin period in the
  January 2004 outburst of DO (YY) Draconis," to be
  published in the JBAA 2005.
• Hamilton, R.T. and Sion, E.M., Dwarf Novae with
  Newly Determined Parallaxes Model Analyses of VY
  Aquarii, RU Pegasi, and T Leonis, PASP, 116,
  926 2004.
• Kameswara Rao, N., Reddy, B.E., and Lambert,
  D.L., "R Coronae Borealis Stars at Minimum Light
  -- UW Cen," MNRAS, 355, 855 2004.

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Publications with AAVSO Assistance October 2004
February 2005

• Lebzelter, T., Hinkle, K.H., Wood, P.R., Joyce,
  R.R., and Fekel, F.C., "A study of bright
  Southern Long Period Variables," AA, 431, 623
  2004.
• Sobotka, P., "XX Ophiuchi in Deep Minimum after
  37 Years, IBVS, 5571 2004.
• Wheatley, P.J. and Mauche, C.W., The Astrophysics
  of Cataclysmic Variables and Related Objects,
  J.M. Hameury and J.P. Lasota, eds., ASP Conf.
  Series (in press).

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Dorrit Hoffleit AutobiographyOctober 1, 2004
March 1, 2005
Misfortunes as Blessings in Disguise The Story
of My Life By Dorrit Hoffleit Senior Research
Astronomer Emeritus Yale University, and
Director Emeritus,Maria Mitchell Observatory
Total Number Sold 10 Comp. Copies 0 Review
Copies Sent 0
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Hands-On AstrophysicsOctober 1, 2004 March 1,
2005
Complete Kits
Other

• HOA Software set 1
• HOA Video 1

• US 2
• Foreign 1
• Total 3
• Comp 0

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Thanks
To each and every one of you for your
contributions and support!!!