Nowhere is the relationship between professional and amateur counterparts more committed than between the professional and amateur astronomer (1.4 MB pdf). Professional astronomers often depend on the amateur to lend a hand, or in this case an eye, where the professional simply does not have the time and the backyard telescope to observe certain astronomical events. With thousands of experienced, dedicated, and enthusiastic observers worldwide, the amateur astronomer is often an indespensible component of astronomy. This is particularly true in the field of variable star astronomy. With long-period variable stars, such as Mira variables, needing years, decades, even centuries of monitoring, to the more rapid and unpredictable variations of the dwarf novae requiring constant attention, the amateur's diverse interests keep these and all variables in between covered.

Whether an astronomer wants to check for period variations based on nearly 100 years of data for a certain star or if the current brightness of a particular variable is needed in order to schedule satellite observations, professionals often turn to the help of AAVSO observers for their dilligent and careful work.

Here are just a few examples of how the professional and amateur collaboration work to produce real science with real results:

• A Stellar Year for the AAVSO - Feature article reviewing publications in 2005 that used AAVSO data
• Exchange of professional and amateur ideas, questions, and experiences on the AAVSO Discussion Group

• Requests for time-dependent observations from various professional astronomers to schedule observations with ground-based and space satellites, and to correlate AAVSO data with data obtained from satellites such as HST, Chandra, IUE, EUVE, and more via the AAVSO News Flash and Alert Notice.

  Amateur Astronomers contributed data and services (via the AAVSO) for the following sattelites which observed variable stars (click on images below to enlarge):

• Professional publication of scientific findings through analysis of AAVSO light curves (click on images to enlarge)

• Contributions AAVSO observers have made to understanding CVs (please click on images to enlarge):

• The AAVSO High Energy Network:
  Powerpoint presentation by Chuck Pullen and Arne Henden presented at the AAVSO Spring Meeting 2003, "GRB030329 - AAVSO's Contribution to the Light Curve, a Statistical Analysis"

More examples of this important and unique partnership can be found in various press releases and publications:

• Pro-Am Collaboration and the AAVSO - article by AAVSO Director, Arne Henden, about the AAVSO and the valuable professional-amateur collaboration that we foster. ASP Conference Series, 2006. Article is pdf format (1.4 MB).
• AAVSO in Print - Published papers using AAVSO data
• Articles from the ASP Conference Proceedings entitled "Amateur - Professional Partnerships in Astronomy" - Held in Toronto in 2000
• Amateur-Professional collaboration with V838 Mon
• AAAS: Backyard Astronomers Unite to Solve Mysteries of Stellar Explosions
• Partnership Captures Bursting Star
• Calling All Amateur Stargazers: NASA Needs You
• Amateur and Professional Astronomers Team Up for Chandra Observations of SS Cygni
• Partnership in Astronomy: Linking Students and Teachers with a Community of Dedicated Amateur Astronomers
• Amateur-Professional Collaborations in the AAVSO
• Amateur and Professional Astronomers Team Up for Chandra Observations of SS Cygni
• Gamma-Ray Bursts and Amateur Astronomers
• Riccardo Giacconi: A High-Energy Visionary Wins Nobel Prize

The following is a short list of some of the published scientific papers that used data provided by the AAVSO (for a more complete list, please visit the AAVSO in Print page:

• GRB030329: Multicolor Light Curve and Ionospheric Detection by Price, A.; Achee, C.G.; Aquino, B.; Beaver, D., et al., IBVS #5415, May 15, 2003.
• "LX Cygni: a Mira Variable with a Drastic Period Increase" by Templeton, M.R., Mattei, J.A., & Price, A., IBVS #5367, January 28, 2003.
• "Period Change in S Sextantis" by M. Templeton and J. Mattei, IBVS 5344, November 26, 2002.
• "Multicolor Observations of V838 Mon" by A. Price, et al., IBVS 5315, September 9, 2002
• "Wavelet Analysis of the RV Tauri Star U Mon" by J.A. McSaveney, P.L. Cottrell, K.R. Pollard, and J.A. Mattei was published in Radial and Nonradial Pulsations as Probes of Stellar Physics, ASP Conference Proceedings (also IAU Colloquium 185), ed. by Conny Aerts, Timothy R. Bedding, and Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, 259, 576; 2002.
• "Hydrodynamic Simulations of Flares on Accretion Disks" by Glen Williams and Kerriann H. Malatesta was published in the Astronomical Journal, 123, 1095; 2002.
• "RX And: An Intermediate Between Z Cam and VY Scl Stars" by M.R. Schreiber, B.T. Gänsicke, and J.A. Mattei was published The Physics of Cataclysmic Variables and Related Objects, ASP Conference Proceedings, ed. by B. T. Gänsicke, K. Beuermann, and K. Reinsch, 261, 545; 2002, and in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 384, L6; 2002. 
• "GK Persei" by J.A. Mattei, S. Tracy, N. Granby, M. Linnolt, J. Virtanen, R. Stine, F. van Loo, T. Burrows, J. Speil, and W. Kriebel was published in the International Astronomical Union Circular 7841; 2002.
• "V838 Mon" by N.J. Brown, E.O. Waagen, C. Scovil, P. Nelson, A. Oksanen, J. Solonen, and A. Price was published in the International Astronomical Union Circular 7785; 2002.
• "SS Cygni - A Nonlinear Revisit" by N. Jevtic, J.A. Mattei, and J.S. Schweitzer was published in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
, Vol. 34, No. 2, 775; 2002.
• "An Analysis of the Long Term Light Curve of U Geminorum" by J.K. Cannizzo, N. Gehrels, and J.A. Mattei was published in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society Meeting, Vol. 34, No. 2, 774; 2002 and was accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
• "Statistical Analysis of the Long-term Visual Light Curve Parameters of Dwarf Novae" by T. Ak, M.T. Ozkan, and J.A. Mattei was published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 389, 478; 2002.
• "ES Aquilae is an R Coronae Borealis Star" by G.C. Clayton, D. Hammond, J. Lawless, D. Kilkenny, T.L. Evans, J. Mattei, and A.U. Landolt was published in The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 114, 846; 2002.
• "The Evolution of the Mira Variable R Hydrae" by A.A. Zijlstra, T.R. Bedding, and J.A. Mattei was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 334, 498; 2002.
• "Multicolor Observations of V838 Mon" by A. Price, J. Mattei, A. Henden, D. West, J. Bedient, P. Nelson, L. Smelcer, D. Klingesmith, K. Luedeke, C. Sherrod, S. O'Connor, A. Oksanen, and M. Templeton was published in the Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, No. 5315, 1; 2002.
• "V4742 Sagittarii (Nova Sgr 2002 No. 2)" by W. Liller, T. Kato, E. Waagen, B. King, C. Puig, J. Bedient, and M. Linnolt, M. was published in the International Astronomical Union Circular 7971; 2002.
• Zavala et al., 2002, "The Origin of Cyclic Period Changes in Close Binaries: The Case of the Algol Binary WW Cygni", January, Astronomical Journal, 123, 450-457
• "Do red giant stars pulsate in high overtones?" by Percy, John R.; Hosick, JoAnne in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 334, Issue 3, pp. 669-672; 2002.
• "Properties and nature of Be stars. XXI. The long-term and the orbital variations of V832 Cyg = 59 Cyg" by Harmanec, P.; Bozic, H.; Percy, J. R.; Yang, S.; Ruzdjak, D.; Sudar, D.; Wolf, M.; Iliev, L.; Huang, L.; Buil, C.; Eenens, P. in Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.387, p.580-594; 2002.
• "Autocorrelation Analysis of Hipparcos Photometry of Short-Period Be Stars" by Percy, John R.; Hosick, JoAnne; Kincaide, Heather; Pang, Ceci in The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 114, Issue 795, pp. 551-558. (2002)