American Association of Variable Star Observers

Founded in 1911, the organization focuses on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers.

[1] The AAVSO creates records that establish light curves depicting the variation in brightness of a star over time.

They routinely hold training workshops for citizen science and publish papers with amateurs as co-authors.

In the 1990s, the AAVSO developed the Hands-On Astrophysics curriculum, now known as Variable Star Astronomy[9] (with support from the National Science Foundation [NSF]).

In 2009, the AAVSO was awarded a three-year $800,000 grant from the NSF to run Citizen Sky,[10] a pro-am collaboration project examining the 2009-2011 eclipse of the star epsilon Aurigae.

Twenty scientists, mostly men, standing for a group photograph in 1916.
AAVSO members in 1916, meeting at Harvard College Observatory. The two women in the photograph are Ida E. Woods (front row) and Annie Jump Cannon (behind Woods).