The Variable Star Index is the largest amateur-led project to catalog and detail every variable star known in the Galaxy. It was launched in 2005 by importing as many catalogs of variable stars as were available. Since then, the number of sky surveys and new variable star discoveries has grown, as have the number of amateur and professional researchers finding new variable stars. In ten years, VSX has grown to a catalog of over 334,000 variable records.
Right now we try to keep the database updated, adding the new objects published in alert pages such as those from ASAS-SN, CRTS and ATel. Exciting times are coming, because soon Gaia alerts will start being released and in the future LSST will present a very large number of alerts per day. Will we be able to manage this flood of new discoveries?
WE NEED YOUR HELP.
You can help us to provide a better service to the community by mainting our database up to date.
Each day new papers on variable stars are published in different journals.
Every day new transient objects are published in alert pages.
Each month there are new lists to include in VSX, which means reformatting, cross-identifying and data-checking among other things.
How can you help?
You can do it in many ways, please visit this page to know more.
Even the smallest contribution will be important and will give us more time
and power to keep up with these new challenges.
Contact us at vsx@aavso.org so we can give you more details and find out what project is suitable for you.
Thank you very much for your help!
----------------------
Sebastian Otero
VSX Team
American Association of Variable Star Observers