{"id":5563,"date":"2014-03-14T09:39:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T13:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/?p=5563"},"modified":"2014-03-14T09:41:40","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T13:41:40","slug":"the-kingston-astronomy-club-met-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/2014\/03\/the-kingston-astronomy-club-met-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kingston Astronomy Club Met"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/rasckccolorlogo2012oct14-200.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/rasckccolorlogo2012oct14-200.jpg\" alt=\"rasckccolorlogo2012oct14-200\" width=\"200\" height=\"198\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4593\" srcset=\"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/rasckccolorlogo2012oct14-200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/rasckccolorlogo2012oct14-200-150x148.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada \u2013 Kingston Centre met last night, Thursday 2014 March 13th in Ellis Hall Room 324 at Queen\u2019s University.<\/p>\n<p>Our Guest Speaker: Dr. John Percy (University of Toronto) who spoke on<br \/>\n&#8220;Understanding Variable Stars: How the AAVSO &#8212; and You &#8212; Can Help&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Abstract: Variable stars are stars which change in brightness; they are &#8220;action in the sky&#8221;. They provide important and unique information about the nature and evolution of the stars. Some flare, some erupt, and a few self-destruct as supernovas. Many (including the sun) pulsate, and the pulsations can provide a &#8220;CT scan&#8221; of the inside of the star, or direct evidence of the star&#8217;s evolution. About half of all stars are binary stars, and some of these vary by eclipsing each other. In the last decade, thousands of stars have been found to vary because a planet &#8212; called an exoplanet &#8212; passes between us and the star. Variable stars are thus revealing the first earth-like planets outside the solar system. I will review the different kinds of variable stars, and how they are studied. I will describe some of the ways that amateur astronomers can help, especially through the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) I will describe some of my current research projects, most of which are carried out by keen undergraduate students, using AAVSO data.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Percy is the current Honourary President of the RASC, Past President of the RASC and past Editor of the RASC Observer&#8217;s Handbook!<\/p>\n<p>Other presentations from:<br \/>\nBrian Hunter: 163 Erigone and the Regulus Occultation<br \/>\nRichard Wiegand: Luna 4<br \/>\nKim Hay : Lunar and Solar Sketching<\/p>\n<p>The meeting adjourned at 9:20 pm and all in all it was a good meeting with a good turnout of 20 people, many of which we have not seen in some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada \u2013 Kingston Centre met last night, Thursday 2014 March 13th in Ellis Hall Room 324 at Queen\u2019s University. Our Guest Speaker: Dr. John Percy (University of Toronto) who spoke on &#8220;Understanding Variable Stars: How the AAVSO &#8212; and You &#8212; Can Help&#8221; Abstract: Variable stars are stars which change [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}