Advancing Variable Star Astronomy

Founded in 1911, the AAVSO boasts over 1200 members and observers and is the world's largest non-profit organization dedicated to variable star observation. This timely book marks the AAVSO's centennial year, presenting an authoritative and accurate history of this important association. Writing in an engaging and accessible style, the authors move chronologically through five eras of the AAVSO, discussing the evolution of its structure and purpose. Throughout the text, the main focus is on the thousands of individuals whose contributions have made the AAVSO's progress possible. Describing a century of interaction between amateur and professional astronomers, the authors celebrate the collaborative relationships that have existed over the years. As the definitive history of the first hundred years of the AAVSO, this text has broad appeal and will be of interest to amateur and professional astronomers, as well as historians and sociologists of science in general.

Author: Thomas R. Williams, Michael Saladyga
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/30/2011
Pages: 450
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.45lbs
Size: 9.70h x 7.40w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780521519120

About the Author
Williams, Thomas R.: - Tom Williams is the AAVSO Historian and has served in AAVSO leadership positions for over 20 years, including twice as president. He earned a Ph.D. in History from Rice University in 2000, after spending over thirty years as an industrial chemist and manufacturing manager. Since then, Dr Williams has served as a senior editor for the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (Springer, 2007) and has written forty-three entries for that work. Over the past twenty-five years he has published book chapters, encyclopedia entries and over thirty articles and book reviews.Saladyga, Michael: - "Michael Saladyga is Technical Assistant and Archivist at the AAVSO where he has written several articles on variable star astronomy history for JAAVSO: The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers and has contributed to a number of AAVSO technical monographs and historical articles on variable stars. He earned a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University in 1995. As AAVSO Archivist, he has arranged and catalogued the AAVSO's historical papers - the foundation for much of this book."