Citizen Sky and the Mystery of epsilon Aurigae
Our friends at the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO, which we blogged way back in 2004) have a newer project, Citizen Sky:
We are seeking to understand a star that has been a mystery to scientists for many years. This star is epsilon Aurigae, a very interesting, very bright star located in the constellation Auriga, the charioteer. This star is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye even in the most light-polluted cities, and it is visible every fall, winter, and spring.
Epsilon Aurigae is a variable star—this means it changes in brightness over time. Collecting data on these changes can help us understand the star. There are many types of variables – epsilon Aurigae is an eclipsing variable. (We have a whole page dedicated to more information about epsilon Aurigae, the “star” of our project). The change in brightness that this star undergoes is called an eclipse (a process of fading and coming back to its usual brightness.) This process takes over 600 days. One of the things that makes epsilon Aurigae so interesting is that it only has an eclipse once every 27.1 years.
Some things about the way that this star fades and then regains it brightness are still not fully understood by astronomers after over 175 years of study. The next eclipse of eps Aur is predicted to begin in August 2009. We need you to help us collect data so that we can better understand this mysterious star. Because the star is very bright, it can be observed by anyone regardless of background, training, or equipment: with just good pair of eyes and a finder chart (which we will give you) you can monitor this eclipse.
The eclipse is approaching totality – some models predicted “second contact” to occur on December 19, but observations are showing that some of the assumptions used in that model may be incorrect. Read more about that here. Clearly, it’s an exciting time for this project, and there’s still plenty of time for you to participate!
Link: Citizen Sky
