The 2009 Great World Wide Star Count is already under way, and there is still time to wait for a perfectly pleasant fall evening to step outside and count the stars. Through October 23, this annual citizen science event from Windows to the Universe of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) will be accepting online data collection from amateurs around the world.

Using observational techniques first developed by the Greek astronomer, Hipparchus (learn more about astronomer's magnitude scale), participants are asked to view a particular constellation--depending on your location--and estimate how many stars you can see. Based on your observations, you then make a decision, with great guidance from the activity guide, on the "Limiting Magnitude" of your night sky, which measures the faintest stars you can see.

A step-by-step activity guide is available (in eight different languages) to help make the experience easy and fun for anyone to do. Not only will this data from citizen scientists provide astronomers with important information about light pollution and other visibility issues (view the results from 2008), but it is a great opportunity for families to pique the interest of children (and interested adults!) into an appreciation for the amazing universe in which we live.

Last evening, I participated in the Great World Wide Star Count with my 3 1/2-year old daughter, and it was a great first introduction to constellations and just looking up. We have already attended a local star party where she was able to look through telescopes to view the Moon and Jupiter, but this project offered just another little step toward thinking more about the thousands of points of light she sees every night.

We first talked a bit about how people have found patterns up in the sky, a lot like we find patterns in clouds, and went through the easy and fun tutorial on the website to help us find Cygnus, our viewing constellation. We then reviewed the activity guide's clear illustrations to prepare us to think about how we are going to make our decision as to what our night sky's limiting magnitude might be.

So, with just a few fun minutes of thinking about what we are about to see... and a little playing on the computer with the constellation finding tutorial (view)... we bundled up in our jacket and headed outside to spend a little quality time just looking up.

After the viewing, we came back inside, reviewed again the activity guide's illustrations on what our night sky looked like, and together we agreed on a decision of our observed limiting magnitude. Finally, we went back to the reporting website, entered in our Latitude and Longitude and recorded our observation. Our data immediately appeared on the featured map, and it was cool to see our point with the hundreds of others from around the world.

There are only a few days left, so go outside and count the stars in your night sky tonight with the Great World Wide Star Count!

Last year, we featured on DPR AmSci NASA's LCROSS Mission to the moon (read), which is an important study to see if water ice exists on the moon. A successful find would amount to a critical discovery that will lead the way for sending humans back to the big rock in the sky.

An exciting feature of this mission is that NASA is soliciting the assistance for amateur astronomers to watch the crash -- and the resulting plume of moon dust -- from their backyards, and report their photographs and observations directly to NASA.

The time is nearing for the event, which is scheduled for October 9, and NASA just announced the planned crash location on the moon: Cabeus-A (read more...) This crater site is visible from Earth, but is mostly shroud in shadow, which means that intense solar radiation has less of a chance to vaporize any remaining water ice crystals.

If you are interested in learning more about participating in the observation, consider hosting an "Impact Night Event" for you and your amateur astronomer friends. NASA has set up an Impact Kit web site to guide your setup and observations to help you make history with this amazing opportunity for citizen scientists to do real research!

If you are planning to participate, please post a comment to let us know here at DPR and tell us about your experience!

The dog days of summer are essentially over, and what a beautiful time it is to be in New York City. So, what better way to enjoy a cool evening in the City than to help scientists monitor cricket and katydid populations using your wandering eyes and ears!

The Discover Life organization is hosting this wonderful citizen science research event, and they are inviting everyone in the City to "an aural expedition and a celebration of life in the leafy jungles of urban and suburban NYC and surrounding area."

The monitoring event will be held on September 11, 2009 (or the next day, if it rains), and if you are interested in joining you may register online. They will be publishing a live map online of the collected results, so it will still be an interesting event to watch even if you live too far away to participate.

The task is easy... just take a stroll at night, listen for one minute, and write down the kinds of chirping insects you hear.

For those of you United States citizens braving the wild northern hinterlands of Alaska, there is a new program for organizing citizen scientists through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Conservations Division.

This great partnership between the interested public and local professionals is a great opportunity for doing some particularly unique amateur research that would be entirely different from anything that the rest of the "lower states" can imagine.

Currently, the program is featuring projects on the habitats of wood frogs (and, how in the world do they survive the Alaskan winter!), the conservation of waterbird populations, and the study of the summertime habitat for the Alaskan bat (did you not think Alaska had any bats?).

If you live in Nebraska and are interested in joining this exciting new citizen science training program, link through below and contact the group today. Be sure to post your experiences back here on DPR Citizen Science!

You are one of millions and millions of human beings who are carrying a special research tool in your pocket or purse. It's your cell phone, of course! And, with mobile technologies advanced to nearly the point that we now can have mini-computers resting in the palm of our hand, scientists are beginning to realize the untapped potential of world-wide data collection from citizen scientists.

There are many exciting potential uses for how the average cell phone user--nearly everyone of us!--can participate in important science studies where ever one might live. Local climate measurements, traffic conditions, and real-time observations via text messages are just an inkling of where cell phone citizen science can be used.

This opportunity for scientists has already been realized and an important study was completed out of UCLA, which describes how existing mobile technologies can be used to enhance citizen science participation. If you are interested in learning more, and even would like to find out how to get involved with your own phone, read the paper and see how you can connect as a mobile citizen scientist.

Prof. Mike Brown and colleagues from the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech have written a paper, and it is currently in its final editing stages prior to submission to a professional journal.

This isn't a particularly special event, as thousands of other scientists across the country are working on their own draft versions of their own research at this very moment... but what is particularly interesting here is that Prof. Brown wants serious reviews from citizen scientists to assist with the editing process before making his submission final.

There has been growing indirect evidence that Titan, one of Saturn's moons, has a planetary water cycle (or, hydrological cycle) much like Earth's cycle with water continuously moving between land and air through evaporation and precipitation. Only on Titan, this cycle contains methane instead of water.

Using imaging from the Cassini spacecraft, this group of scientists claims to have observed fog at the southern pole of the moon. They argue that the appearance of fog on Titan can only be caused by the evaporation of liquid methane into the atmosphere, and therefore this provides the first direct evidence of an active hydrological cycle on the moon.

So, if you feel up to this important challenge for citizen science, carefully read and review the draft paper, and post your serious comments on Prof. Brown's website... or send him messages directly.

If you take part in this review process, please let us know here at DPR about your experience!

The classic lady bug -- or, Coccinellidae, the pretty red ones -- is actually a farmer friendly little creature that is critical for reducing populations of annoying pests like aphids, or nasty plant-eating lice.

The population level of the lady bug seems to be declining in the Midwestern United States, and Dr. Mary Gardiner of Ohio State University wants to find out what is going on. She has setup a great new citizen science program called the Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz Volunteer Network, that is a perfect opportunity for Ohio residents to contribute in important ways to the local agricultural science. A new round of studies will begin again next summer, and required training for volunteers starts in February 2010.

If you live anywhere in Ohio and are interested in helping out next year with this important project, take a moment to learn more and consider taking the time to train...

This might be the greatest citizen science project to come along in 2009.

Although, this point would be debatable, it really doesn't matter because we have access to a great new partnership called Citizen Sky from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) that has just been funded by the National Science Foundation. Citizen Sky is so exciting because it opens up an incredible opportunity for anyone interested in "looking up" to do real and very serious science.

In fact, this is not just a "fun" project that the AAVSO wants to offer to carve a few good karma, public education support notches in their belts... this project demands the use of citizen scientists because the high-tech astronomical equipment used by the professionals is not ideal for the observation needs of the data collection!

The project is looking at an odd behavior of the very large, and very bright star, Epsilon Aurigae (more). First observed back in 1821, it was realized that it's brightness (and it is pretty bright) dims to nearly half its normal level every 27 years, and it remains dim for nearly 2 years! So something might be eclipsing the star, but it's still odd and many hypothesis have been suggested... and scientists from the AAVSO need the help of citizen scientists to finally figure out the solution to this important observation of our universe.

Learn more about this wonderful new program, and consider taking part in what will be an historically important movement for the advancement and success of citizen science...

If you are fortunate enough to take a trip to spend time swimming with the reefs, then you will surely experience one of the most impressive displays available from our natural world. The coral reefs are certainly a primary focus of conservation right now as pollution and disrespectful visitors are reeking havoc on this ocean wonder.

However, as a tourist you should not be shy and stay away from this experience in the name of conservation. In fact, it is your first-hand respect and attention that will help save the reefs from further destruction.

Read more about what sort of respectful caution you should consider while visiting a reef, and even consider getting involved with an important citizen science effort, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation's Volunteer Survey Project.

Just recently, NASA announced exciting progress on a new program that uses two space probes to image the sun's surface while facing away from Earth. STEREO ("Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory") uses the satellites are still floating into position for full viewing, but they are already returning images of never-before-seen sun horizons.

In order to download and process the future image data around-the-clock, NASA would like to establish a "mini-Deep Space Network" comprised of experience HAM operators from around the world who can collect signals through 10m X-band antennas. This is an amazing opportunity to be a part of cutting-edge solar science and will support critical early detections and forecasting of solar storms.

The first (of two) solar eclipses of 2009 begins late tonight, and will be visible over the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia. So, even if you are not floating on a boat in the middle of the ocean early in the morning, you can still watch the eclipse live thanks to an array of telescopes being made available through the South Africa National Node of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 program.

The viewing will be available begining around 12 midnight (CST) (the annular path begins in the South Atlantic at 06:06 UT), so take a brief nap this evening and stay up late to watch the beautiful sight!

Emerging from the IBM Watson Research Center is a wonderful new online tool for interactively visualizing data sets of nearly any sort. The service is called Many Eyes, and could provide quite useful for citizen scientists to work collaboratively across the world in analyzing data and gaining new insights into amateur research efforts.

The Many Eyes software is free with a registration, and contains tools to upload and organize your data into world maps, line and stack graphs, comparison charts, scatter plots, network maps, and other visualization options. We have not yet explored the interesting service, but DPRI will be in the the site in the near future to test the system and to see what sort of opportunities there might be for the amateur science community, including how we might be able to collaboratively work together through DPRI on future projects.

If you would be interested in working with DPRI in the near future on citizen science collaborations, potentially using the Many Eyes system, please contact us or leave a comment below. Or, better yet, send us your FREE registration and we'll be in touch with you soon about what sort of opportunities we will have!

We're going to the ocean for vacation this year! ... and we'll do some scuba diving ... and we'll take pictures of the elusive whale shark ... and we'll submit the photographs to researchers to help monitor migration behavior!

Learn more about the whale shark

This is exactly the expectation of vacationers from the scientists working with ECOCEAN, who have already collected over 17,000 photos of whale sharks from over 1,400 citizen science contributors. This exciting database uses sophisticated image analysis software to help identify the whale sharks. Developed by NASA and Zaven Arzoumanian and originally used for star mapping, the software can map out the unique white spot pattern found on the whale shark.

So, if you are planning a vacation to the ocean in the near future, or if you are already an avid scuba diver and have seen a whale shark while swimming around, then check out ECOCEAN and join the program to contribute your valuable photos.

The Fab Lab from MIT is the ultimate at-home kit for the do-it-yourself amateur scientists and technologist. Complete with CAD/CAM design software, laser cutter, miniature mill, and much more... the Fab Lab operator can design and develop nearly anything that can be imagined.

Sure, the price tag sits at a steep $50,000, so not many will be going into the garage of the average citizen scientist, but this is certainly a wonderful start to expanding the reach of opportunities for technological innovation.

Developed by the MIT physicist, Neil Gershenfeld, the Fab Lab has been set up for at least 26 different clients all over the globe. The primary target market right now for the program is small-scale, local entrepreneurs, who need a complete rapid prototyping environment to support innovative technology development in small business. The long-term goal, however, is to continue developing the concept for a much broader audience that might some day emulate the infamous "Star Trek Replicator".

In all seriousness, the Fab Lab could be in the reach of a larger collective of citizen scientists who could pool together personal financing, donations, and organized non-profit funding to bring the ambitious and highly-educational lab to local groups of amateurs. Maybe in the very near future we will see local amateur research groups imagining, developing, and creating new, innovative technologies that could be launched into the marketplace. With a little collective help--something citizen scientists do best--the Fab Lab might be the ticket to bringing the amateur to the next level in research and development opportunities.

Image from Wikipedia: Monarch Butterfly

The great Fall migration of the Monarch Butterfly has begun. You may soon see hundreds of butterflies fluttering overhead has they instinctively navigate their way to the very same spot in Mexico where their parents left from last spring... they've never been there before, but they somehow know exactly where to go... one of twelve isolated mountain tops in central Mexico.

Join the citizen science program with Journey North and help track the observations of the flight of the butterfly. Starting August 28 through the arrival of the Monarchs in Mexico by the end of October, the program will post weekly news updates of the migration progress. This will certainly be an interesting and exciting process to follow, so DPRI AmSci Journal will also be keeping an eye on the flight in our Today's Science News section!

Environmental researchers from the University of Southern Australia are soliciting assistance from citizen scientists to help better understand the still mysterious behavior of the possum. Because the animal lives among and shares space with humans, it's difficult to track and monitor their behavior without trespassing and interfering with the neighborhood.

So, Professor Chris Daniels has set up a brief on line survey for locals to submit observations--including the lack of observations--of the possum population. With the critical assistance from citizen science, he hopes to gain new insight into the population distribution of possums and how people manage their interactions with the creature.

Just completing its second summer of data collection, a great new program brings citizen scientists from across the country to report observations on life cycle events from plants in their own backyard. The program called Project BudBurst is lead by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Phenology Network, and collects information on the timing of the first bud, first flower, and seed dispersal for plants.

Visit Project BudBurst to learn more about the research, download the program activity guide, and plan to submit your critical observations for next year's cycle in Spring 2009.

Frogs make music ... and like any great sonorous pattern, one only has to learn more and experience a little to appreciate it as true music. This is what University of Nebraska-Lincoln herpetologist Dennis Ferraro is trying to support with his compilation of "Frog Calls of Nebraska" [ order online ].

Learning the rhythms of frogs can certainly be aesthetically pleasing, but even more so a detailed knowledge of the frog language can help scientists track population trends. A decline in frog populations has become such a concern, that 2008 is the official "Year of the Frog".

Online databases exists for local regions as well as a national program supported by the National Wildlife Foundation that allow citizen scientists the opportunity to learn specific frog calls and report the findings for nation-wide monitoring systems.

During the Summer of 2009, NASA will torpedo a big barrel of metal into a forever dark spot on the Moon producing an explosion on the order of 2,000 pounds of dynamite. The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is designed to target a location that is permanently located in a shadow of the Sun where there is a possibility of having water ice stored at the constant estimated temperature of 40 degrees above absolute zero.

We won't actually be able to see the crash on the surface, but the plume is what is of interest ... if water ice existed in the dark spot, then it might be thrown up into the hyper-thin atmosphere and water molecules vaporized into constituent H and OH, which can then be detected by their characteristic wavelengths.

Let alone that this mission is the first critical experimental step to returning human beings to the Moon -- for permanent residence -- but, the greatest part of this lunar research program is that NASA will be scheduling the event so that amateur astronomers in Hawaii and the western United States will be able to monitor the action from their backyard telescopes (as well as professional astronomers with their multi-million dollar telescopes).

Learn more about the LCROSS mission by following the links below and find out how you can take part in the experiment. Mission scientists believe that the impact plume will be visible from amateur-class telescopes with apertures as small as 10 to 12 inches. NASA will be activity soliciting images from the public and will be posting additional information on this outstanding opportunity on their website.

DPRI AmSci Journal will keep a watch on the developments, so stay tuned! (And, be sure to register with DPRI to receive free email updates!)

A new citizen science survey of migratory birds in South Africa is being launched this week by the Ndlovu Node of the SA Environmental Observation Network. Locals will record observations of the arrival of specific species to help track the migratory behavior, which might be related to potential issues in regional climate change. In particular, as habitats change, birds will migrate to alternate areas that might better match their climate preferences.

This study is expanding on results earlier this year from the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which found significant decreases in migrations of certain bird species from Africa into Europe.

The Wilderness Institute at the University of Montana features a Citizen Science program that is a wonderful opportunity for our amateur research friends up north to explore their local natural wildlands and contribute to the region's scientific monitoring.

They consider the contributions from their volunteers to be quite valuable and they seems quite supportive of the citizen science movement. The institute has programs going on right now, so visit the website by following the link below and contact the group to join in the activities. You might even make into an upcoming photogallery update!

If you are a Citizen Scientist involved with the Wilderness Institute, please let us know about your experiences by posting a comment below.

Not living in Montana, but want to explore a wilderness near you? Check out the national locater map at Wilderness.net sponsored by The University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation.

Beautiful falling space debris from the latest 1992 passing of Comet Swift-Tuttle will once again grace our sky early in the morning of August 12, 2008. Drive far away from city lights and venture with your family and friends to enjoy the show. The Perseid meteor shower should provide another good viewing this year with possibly one to two meteors each minute.

Read the following NASA news article to learn more and plan for a show of nature that will certainly be exciting and fun to watch.

The Division of Historical Resources in New Hampshire is offering a wonderful opportunity for citizen scientists to learn new skills, have some summer fun "hunting in the woods," and to provide important discoveries on regional historical landmarks and resources.

There is no digging required, just a little bug repellent (and apparently a small fee of $25 to help cover the basic costs)... and short training courses, or "field schools," are available to prepare the inexperienced. In particular, the State Conservation and Rescue Archaeology Program (or SCRAP) is looking for locations of old building foundations--called cellar holes--from communities that once existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Microsoft Research recently released the WorldWide Telescope (WWT) software, which provides seamless access to astronomical data via an advanced interactive interface.

The name "WorldWide Telescope" comes from the description by Alex Szalay and Jim Gray in 2002 of a new genre of astronomical research that would recognize and utilize the vast resources that were becoming available on the World Wide Web. As that grid of resources becomes a unified reality with the infrastructure provided by the VO efforts, Microsoft Research and the Space-Time Consortium at Harvard are developing WWT to unify these distributed resources on the astronomer's desktop.

"The VO Inside WorldWide Telescope" :: NVO Newsletter Issue 2: June 2008 :: [ READ ]

(The above introduction was re-published with permission from Sarah Emery Bunn of the US National Virtual Observatory.)

The northern prairie skink (taxonavigation) of Manitoba, Canada is disappearing from the cold landscape. Although apparently thriving in the United States, fewer remain up north and the little critter was officially deemed endangered by the federal government in 2004 and is currently under review by the Endangered Species Advisory Committee.

Much of this increased awareness was directly influenced by the work of one citizen scientist, Errol Bredin, who has spent most of his life since childhood chasing down the quick little lizard, who has the ability to loose and regrow its tail if pulled too hard.

Now, a new Internet-based community group has been formed called "S.O.S" ... "Save Our Skinks" ... with key member, Doug Collicutt, the publisher of the Nature North e-zine. S.O.S is calling on the local citizenry to report rare skink sightings and support Skinkfest to raise additional awareness. An organized citizen science-based program is not yet developed, but they are certainly looking for more support to grow the program.

Dr. Pamela Rutherford at Brandon University is also formally studying the species, and is planning to use technology to help record underground skink activity that has never been seen before. Coupled with the potential amateurs in the area, a clear picture of skink survivability can be determined with the hope of saving the species from further decline over the next decade.

Since 1995, thousands of Britons have participated in the citizen science bird monitoring programs though the British Trust for Ornithology. In particular, the BTO is looking for people interested in developing personal garden habitats to help survey how birds use gardens and how this use changes with the season.

Join with the New Jersey Audubon Society this summer and fall in the Raritan Bay and Raritan River watershed area and the Meadowlands to track and survey snowy and great egrets, great blue herons, yellow-crowned night herons and black-crowned night herons in the region.

APP.com "Volunteers sought to track egrets, herons in New Jersey" :: June 25, 2008 :: [ READ more about this opportunity ]

Since major damage from Hurricane Katrina, the new Pascagoula River Audubon Center is growing with great new opportunities for learning about the local habitats and helping to redevelop the landscape. Get involved soon if you live in the area.

"Nature grows on Moss Point" SunHerald.com :: June 24, 2008 :: [READ]

Beginning June 28, 2008 in Old Town, Maine, A new group at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension is being formed to train volunteers to howl like a gray wolf in the deep woods of Maine. These wolves--which are federally protected--are believed to no longer live in this area of the country.

Learn more about the Wolf Inquiry Project

Our thoughts and prayers will be with the brave citizen scientists that if a wolf is lured out of hiding that it isn't romantically attracted to the howler.

"Are there any wolves in Maine?"
Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel June 23, 2008 [READ]

Help observe at track Loons, which are under threat in Montana and Alberta, Canada.

Citizen science no loonie idea :: The Waterton Boundary June 13, 2008 [read]