1. Small Telescope Research Workshop June 12, 2016 San Diego, ca
Publishing in the JDSO
Small Telescope Research Workshop
June 12, 2016
San Diego, ca

2. Journal of Double Star Observations
A quarterly on-line journal (
For amateur and professional astronomers to publish their double star observations and measurements
student papers are welcome
Published since April 1, 2005

3. A Little History of the JDSO
2003, Physics students submitted grant proposal to SPS
Procured a Van Slyke bifilar micrometer
Measured ENG 7 in Cassiopeia (not measured since 1915)

4. Jarrod Cunningham,
Jonathan Pearce,
Tiffany Scarborough, Jessica Guidry

5. Micrometer purchased by students with their SPS grant.

7. Eyepiece view of a binary star through the bifilar micrometer.
fixed
movable
rotatable

9. ENG 7 Date PA sep Ref aperture 1892 135 102.7 ENG 1902.97 137.1 96.382
WFC1998 13
137.5
93.48
Bu_1913 40
138.4
91.08
Lau1911b 10
139.1
90.389
139.0
88.80
Com1929 16
175.5
45.9
USA'ns 8
We wrote to the USNO and requested all the measurements of ENG 7 and they are here in this table with ours at the bottom. The items to notice here is the steady increase in PA and steady decrease in separation for all entries.
Past measurements of ENG 7

10. The students determined that ENG 7 was not a binary
Motion of the B component would be much too fast to be gravitationally bound to the A component
They also measured the proper motion of the B component.
Where to publish?

11. Jessica gave a talk at a national AAPT conference in Miami and a poster at a national SPS congress in New Mexico.
Jonathan gave talks at regional student conferences in Mobile, AL and Hattiesburg, MS
The Double Star Observer published by R. Tanguay had just ceased publication.
Where can we, or any other amateur double star observer, publish our measurements?
So, I started my own journal....

14. Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, text
Submitting to the JDSO
Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, text
not pdf or Tex
Tables can be tables or a spreadsheet.
not a jpg!
Pictures can be embedded in body of paper.
Separate jpg files look a bit better.
Don’t make labels too small.
Get your paper reviewed before submitting

15. Washington Double Star Catalog
Maintained by United States Naval Observatory
Principal data base of double and multiple star information
including all reported measurements
Reported measurements must be published to be included in the WDS

16. The appeal of observing double stars is the fun of measuring a difficult or long neglected pair, and the fact that your data become part of a progression of measurements spanning over two centuries – data that that may be combined with measures made long before you were born and used by someone long after you are gone.
William Hartkopf