I am not sure how this fits in with the various BRITE observations made here but this request has just been posted on the spectro-l amateur spectroscopy group.
Cheers
Robin
Dear members of the spectro-I group,
Let me briefly comment on this:
I am a member of the BRITE-Constellation Science Team and chair of the BRITE-Constellation Ground Based Observations Team (GBOT). I recently joined your group to advertise BRITE-Constellation - and Manfred was faster than me! Thanks for that!
As chair of GBOT, I am trying to bring together ground-based observers with scientists that work with BRITE-Constellation data. We have already successfully started to collaborate with amateur observers worldwide and the whole BRITE-Constellation team would be very happy if some of you are interested to work together with us.
Every couple of months I will provide on the order of 5 to 10 stars that are scientifically interesting and are observed by BRITE-Constellation. I provide a table with relevant information on the targets which also includes the scientific background for each target. Stars might include topics like pulsations, binarity or light variability due to spots, for example.
You can find all information about BRITE-Constellation on our webpage (
www.brite-constellation.at).
From there, please go to the GBOT subpage in the main menu and then to “Cooperations! - you will find an xlsx table for download which includes interesting targets, scientific background and contact information to the scientists involved.
Sometimes, one of my colleagues conducts his / her own campaign on a certain star - then you will find information about this specific campaign separately on the GBOT webpages.
We have an agreement between professional and amateur observers / scientists: every observer whose data are used to interpret a given star, becomes a co-author of the scientific publication that describes the findings and the data used.
I am sure Manfred can report to all of you how he is currently working together with Gerald Handler and how the communication works.
I would also like to announce that I am hosting the “Second BRITE-Constellation Science Conference” in Innsbruck, Austria, from Aug 22 to 26 this year. You are all cordially invited to participate.
You can find more information on this webpage:
http://astro-staff.uibk.ac.at/~zwintz/brite2016/
On top of this scientific conference, we are also planning a “meet and greet” between amateur observers and professional astrophysicists. So in case you are interested, please let me know!
If you are interested to join GBOT, are curious to get more information from me or would like to come to Innsbruck in August, feel free to contact me directly any time via
konstanze.zwintz@uibk.ac.at!
Any GBOT member will be listed on the webpage - including the facility (observatory) and location he / she is using!
I would be delighted to read from you!
Cheers, Konstanze