About Variable Stars South

Details: Last Updated on Saturday, 04 May 2013 01:47; Written by Tom Richards

What is VSS?

Variable Stars South is an association of astronomers, mainly amateur, interested in researching the rich and under-explored myriad of southern variable stars.

Renamed from the Variable Star Section of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, it was founded in 1927 by the late Dr Frank Bateson, OBE, and became the recognised centre for Southern Hemisphere variable star research. See Who's Who in the VSS.

VSS covers many areas and techniques of variable star research, organised into "Projects" such as Beginners' Visual Observations and Dual-Maxima Miras. The goal of each project is to obtain scientifically useful data and results. These may be published in recognised journals, or supplied to international specialist data collection organisations.

VSS is entirely an Internet based organisation, working through its website www.VariableStarsSouth.org and its Google Group VariableStarsSouth. It also encourages members to work in with major international organisations such as the Center for Backyard Astrophysics and the American Association for Variable Star Observers.

Whether you are a member or not, you are invited to make use of our facilities:

Join our Google Group and contribute to it.
Explore our research projects on our website (under the menu item Research Projects) and join one or more to contribute to them. If you haven’t got access to suitable equipment, many of the projects seeks analysts to do computer work on the data supplied by observers. To get involved, contact the leader of any project that interests you.

Read our specialised Discussion Forums, and register to contribute to them (go to User Login/Logout on our home page, then choose Register.)

Why should I join VSS?

As a member of VSS, your subscription contributes to the overheads of the organization and supports the VSS Research Grants Scheme. Aside from helping to keep VSS afloat, what is special about being a member?

As a member you are eligible to apply for research grants (see Community > VSS Research Grants). These are available for such expenditures as instrumentation and software, remote telescope access, paywalled research papers – to assist your work in VSS projects.
Got a project of your own that you’d like to involve others in? Use our facilities to set up your project, build a team, publish your results, create forums, and communicate through the Newsletter. Most of our projects started because a member wanted to create a collaboration on something that they were enthusiastic about. Contact the Director to discuss your ideas.

The joining fee is NZ$30.00 and annual membership, due on 30^th April, is NZ$20.00. To join, go to About VSS > Join/Renew.