The 10-Star Training Tutorials are designed for novices who have no prior experience observing variable stars. It is a walk through of how to find the star, how to make an estimate and how to submit the estimate to the AAVSO. If you are new to the AAVSO then these are great tutorials to get you started.
The tutorial begins with stars that are easy to find and observe. Slowly the stars become more challenging as you go down the list. By the time you reach Epsilon Aurigae at the bottom of the list, you’ll be an expert variable star observer contributing real data to professional scientists!
- 10-Star Training Tutorial for the Northern Hemisphere
- 11-Star Training Tutorial for the Southern Hemisphere
- English - 2013 version
- Español (translated by Sebastián Otero)
- Português (translated by Jonatas Ramos & Marcelo Souza)
We are grateful to Astronomers Without Borders for their assistance with compiling the southern hemisphere tutorial.
Some of these stars can only be seen during certain seasons of the year. If a star is currently “out of season” for you, just skip it and come back to it later when the time is right.
| Star Name | Season | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | alpha Orionis | Fall, Winter | a.k.a. Betelgeuse, a red star in the "arm pit" of Orion |
| 2 | eta Geminorum | Fall, Winter | |
| 3 | gamma Cassiopeia | All Year | Cassiopeia is an easy constellation to find - it looks like a giant "W" written on the sky |
| 4 | beta Persei | Winter | This star has an entire eclipse in one night! See chart in the PDF file for more info. |
| 5 | beta Lyrae | Summer | Very easy to find in the summer – it’s next to the bright star straight overhead! |
| 6 | R Lyrae | Summer | |
| 7 | miu Cephei | All Year | Note the spelling of “miu”. This is intentional, to replace the greek character “mu”. |
| 8 | delta Cephei | All Year | |
| 9 | eta Aquilae | Summer | |
| 10 | epsilon Aurigae | Winter, Spring |
| s | Star Name | Season (southern hem.) |
Notes |
| 1 | X Sagittarii | Winter | When observing X Sagittarii, you are observing the Milky Way center. |
| 2 | W Sagittarii | Autumn, Winter | This is actually a triple star system that appears as one star from Earth. |
| 3 | eta Aquilae | Winter | Discovered in 1784. |
| 4 | kappa Pavonis | Winter | |
| 5 | zeta Phoenicis | Winter, Spring | It is usually at maximum light, so catching it in an eclipse takes patience but is also extra rewarding. |
| 6 | beta Doradus | Spring, Summer | |
| 7 | V Puppis | Summer | |
| 8 | alpha Orionis | Summer, Spring | |
| 9 | R Doradus | Summer, Fall | Need binoculars. |
| 10 | I Carinae | Summer, Autumn, Winter | the "l" is a lower-case "L", not an "i". |
| 11 (bonus) | R Carinae | Summer Autumn, Winter | Need a telescope when it is faint. |
Feel free to make extra copies to give to friends, family and anyone else interested. If you would like to hand out a bunch of these at a meeting, contact us and we can print and mail copies to you.