Amateur Research

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?).

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is now offering a new program to train state-wide citizen scientists with background knowledge to empower them to be more effective volunteer naturalists. The goal of the Nebraska Master Naturalist Program is to create a network of trained volunteers to focus on habitat conservation, environmental education, citizen science, outdoor skills and ecotourism.

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!