Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I PIONEERS IN VARIABLE STAR ASTRONOMY PRIOR TO 1909
- PART II THE FOUNDING OF THE AAVSO – THE WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT ERA
- PART III RECORDING AND CLASSIFICATION – THE LEON CAMPBELL ERA
- PART IV THE SERVICE BUREAU – THE MARGARET MAYALL ERA
- PART V ANALYSIS AND SCIENCE – THE JANET MATTEI ERA
- 17 The growth of a director
- 18 Learning the ropes the hard way
- 19 Managing with renewed confidence
- 20 Expanding the scientific charter
- PART VI ACCELERATING OBSERVATIONAL SCIENCE – THE ARNE HENDEN ERA
- Appendix A AAVSO historiographic notes
- Appendix B Top AAVSO observer totals
- Appendix C Variable star observing groups represented in the AAVSO International Database
- Appendix D AAVSO Awards
- Appendix E Officers of the AAVSO
- Appendix F AAVSO Council members
- Appendix G AAVSO Scientific committee, section, division, and program chairs
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
20 - Expanding the scientific charter
from PART V - ANALYSIS AND SCIENCE – THE JANET MATTEI ERA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I PIONEERS IN VARIABLE STAR ASTRONOMY PRIOR TO 1909
- PART II THE FOUNDING OF THE AAVSO – THE WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT ERA
- PART III RECORDING AND CLASSIFICATION – THE LEON CAMPBELL ERA
- PART IV THE SERVICE BUREAU – THE MARGARET MAYALL ERA
- PART V ANALYSIS AND SCIENCE – THE JANET MATTEI ERA
- 17 The growth of a director
- 18 Learning the ropes the hard way
- 19 Managing with renewed confidence
- 20 Expanding the scientific charter
- PART VI ACCELERATING OBSERVATIONAL SCIENCE – THE ARNE HENDEN ERA
- Appendix A AAVSO historiographic notes
- Appendix B Top AAVSO observer totals
- Appendix C Variable star observing groups represented in the AAVSO International Database
- Appendix D AAVSO Awards
- Appendix E Officers of the AAVSO
- Appendix F AAVSO Council members
- Appendix G AAVSO Scientific committee, section, division, and program chairs
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The AAVSO web-site is one of my favorite astronomy tools, Thanks!
– Anonymous AAVSO website user, 2003After Janet Mattei's many contacts with international observers and her invitation for other national groups to submit their observations to the AAVSO International Database, its numbers exceeded 300000 observations annually. Professional astronomers and educators were increasingly relying on these results for their studies of stellar phenomena.
The increase in observations tells us very little about the effort required to make those observations available for use by others. We discussed many aspects of the AAVSO's history as it evolved in the previous chapters, but said little about the staffing at headquarters organization other than for the recorder and/or the director. In the early years there was little more to consider than the position of secretary/receptionist, filled for many years by Helen Stephansky under Recorder Leon Campbell and then Director Margaret Mayall. Florence Campbell Bibber, who worked for Mayall from the 1950s through the 1970s, followed Stephansky. Mayall also began hiring work-study students and other part-time assistants to process observations and handle early programming efforts. With its limited financial resources, the Association could afford nothing more than temporary staff for this work.
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- Information
- Advancing Variable Star AstronomyThe Centennial History of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, pp. 290 - 302Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011