Lately I've been having a little too much fun trying to collect variable star data for NASA's Exoplanet Watch-I've covered it a couple of times in my Friday night livestreams, but what exactly am I doing?
Well, I'm not qute ready to try figuring out NASA's EXOTIC program yet to generate light curves, but I did want to practice not only gathering my data but also documenting what I was doing. As an IT professional, I've lived by the axiom "If it's not documented, it didn't happen." Even for quick fixes that don't require a ticket, I keep notes on what I did in case someone asks questions later. The same goes for what I'm doing with astronomy; it's not just "pics or it didn't happen", but it's also writing down observations and corroborating information, capturing star maps, and basically anything that will help me (or anyone else) understand what I'm looking at with more clarity.
Because I love documentation so much, I've created a variable star observing worksheet to help me record data about the variable star images I'm capturing. It includes four sections:
Observer This is information about me (or whoever is doing the observing), such as my name, my AAVSO observer code, my own latitude and longitude, and mty club affiliation (I'm a member of the Austin Astronomical Society)
Target This is specific information about what I'm looking at, like the target name, RA and Dec, visual magnitude, and a notes section for any other information about the target I think is important or just interesting.
Observation This is specific information about my observing session, including the date and time (both local and UTC), the equipment I'm using, reference objects around my chosen target, and even information about the moon such as what percentage its at and its position above the horizon, which can impact the images I'm capturing.
Charts Because I'm a visual person, I wanted to include charts of what I'm looking at in my worksheet. Personally, I like to find my target in my Starry Night program and look for recognizable patterns around my target to use as my reference stars, take a screenshot, and add number labels next to my reference stars. I also include screenshots of star maps showing my target to compare to my Starry Night screenshot, as well as actual star charts from the Variable Star Plotter.
I also included a list of references that could help me find data I need for variable star observing and documentation, such as links to NASA's Exoplanet Watch page and the Swarthmore Transit Finder to find targets to observe. Another link I include is to the SIMBAD Astronomical Database, because I'm slightly OCD; sometimes stars are labeled with one catalog number while others are labeled with a different catalog number, so I use SIMBAD to look up my reference stars to determine if they're all in the same catalog. If they are, I use similar catalog numbers in my documentation. If not, I grit my teeth and put the stars in as is and tell my OCD to calm the heck down.
My worksheet has already gone through several versions and will most likely go through several more, but for right now I think I have a good grasp on what I'm doing and wanted to share my worksheet with anyone else who's been wanting to get into variable star observing but doesn't have a clue as to where to start. It's in .dotx (Microsoft Word Template) format, so when you save it you would click Save As and change your file type to .docx (Microsoft Word Document) format.
Enjoy your stargazing and good luck with your variable star observing!
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