1. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/80730537.html

2.  AAVSO originated  Under IYA, but continuing beyond  Focus: current Epsilon Aurigae eclipse  “Citizen” = volunteer or amateur  Tutorials, forums, teams, workshops  http://www.citizensky.org/

4.  Conversation with Arne Henden (AAVSO Director) at NACAA 2008.  Java replacement for Grant Foster’s DOS program.   Collaboration with AAVSO and Citizen Sky participants since May 2009.  Early demo given in Aug 2009 at first Citizen Sky workshop at Adler Planetarium, Chicago.

6.  Frequent releases since Dec 2009.  AAS poster about VStar Team in Jan 2010.  NACAA 2010 workshop.  2 nd Citizen Sky workshop, San Francisco.  There’s still plenty to do…  See SourceForge Bug & Issue tracker  Want to write code, test, document?

8.  http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar- software-development http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar- software-development  http://www.citizensky.org/teams/southern- gems http://www.citizensky.org/teams/southern- gems

10.  Intended to be an easy-to-use variable star data visualization and analysis tool.  A SourceForge project licensed under GPL.  Click “Download VStar Now” button on this page:  http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software- development http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software- development  Need Java 1.6 or higher installed.

11. VStar VStar AAVSO International Database VSX VSX (Variable Star Index) VSX VSX (Variable Star Index) CSV, TSV files

12. https://sites.google.com/site/aavsocvsection/ Not U Sco, but another similar system: Artist’s rendition of recurrent nova RS Oph Image credit: David Hardy and PPARC Barbara Harris Shawn Dvorak

13.  Load U Sco from file  Observation details  Plot/table link  Zoom  Change visible series  Fainter-thans

14. 1979 1987 1999 2010

15. Jan 28 Jan 27 Feb 2

16.  Bright (~3rd mag) star in northern constellation Auriga.  Eclipsing binary variable  distance: 625 parsecs  orbital separation: 18 to 20 AU  period: 27.1 years  duration: almost 2 years  Variability first noticed by Johann Fritsch, a German amateur in 1821.

17. Epsilon Aurigae (circled) from Adelaide, 20 Dec 2009 at 0030

19. Current Epsilon Aurigae eclipse began in August 2009 courtesy www.citizensky.org Minimum: December 2009 (maybe) Mid-eclipse: August 2010 Minimum light ends: March 2011 Eclipse ends: May 2011

20. courtesy www.citizensky.org By Nico Camargo and courtesy www.citizensky.org By Brian Thieme and courtesy www.citizensky.org By Nico Camargo and courtesy www.citizensky.org

22.  Load Epsilon Aurigae from AID  Filter obscode (BDJB, MRV)  Save, print  Info  Preferences  Colors  New group: alpha Ori, del Cep, lx Cyg, omi Cet, x Cyg  Error bars  Mean series change, anova  Help (anyone?)

23. http://www.citizensky.org/forum/w-uma-another-eclipsing-binary-star

24.  Load UMa from a file.  Phase plot with period 0.33363749  Replot with period 0.333

27.  Load X Cyg from file  Period analysis  Phase plot

28.  Plug-ins: extend VStar’s functionality.  http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar- software-development/example-vstar-plugins- jar-files-development-doc http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar- software-development/example-vstar-plugins- jar-files-development-doc  Create vstar_plugins dir under:  Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\user  *nix: ~/user

29.  Mira (omi Cet)  Mean bins change  Polynomial model: 7 th degree is a good fit

30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhMeumI36BM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Cygni Mira type pulsating variable post-Asymptotic Giant Branch Star (late stage red giant) 5th to 13th magnitude period: ~407 days

33.  http://www.mtwilson.edu/vir/CHARA.php http://www.mtwilson.edu/vir/CHARA.php  http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar- software-development http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar- software-development  https://sourceforge.net/projects/vstar/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/vstar/  http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software- development/vstar-citizen-sky-2-demo-data-files http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software- development/vstar-citizen-sky-2-demo-data-files  http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software- development/example-vstar-plugins-jar-files-development- doc http://www.citizensky.org/teams/vstar-software- development/example-vstar-plugins-jar-files-development- doc