For over 100 years, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO; a cooperative professional-amateur organization) has been a model for citizen science, allowing amateur astronomers to participate in scientific discovery and providing material help for hands-on science education. They are creating an invaluable resource for both the professional and amateur astronomer communities: a catalog containing accurate positions and brightnesses of over 100,00 bright stars through 5 or more photometric filters. This catalog will enable a host of astronomical studies ranging from near-earth objects to gamma-ray bursts. Tools will be provided for amateur astronomers, educators, and students to discover and categorize new variable stars. Advanced amateurs and summer students are participating in compiling this unique resource for observational astronomy.
The AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey (APASS) will cover the entire sky and provide accurate, absolutely calibrated magnitudes through 5 bandpasses for all stars in the magnitude 7th to 17th magnitude range. No comparable product exists or is contemplated in the near future. Using private funds, the AAVSO has purchased off-the-shelf hardware and has been compiling observations of the entire sky in both hemispheres. NSF support will enable them to complete the all sky survey, make important improvements to the data quality and applicability, and create tools to use the final public release of the database. The proposers present a 2-year plan to complete 100% sky coverage and improve the quality of the final data products. Improvements include extending to brighter sources and to include more photometric bands. This catalog will be of immeasurable value to the astronomical community by providing accurately-calibrated standard stars in every field on the sky, without the need to separately observe calibration fields or establish a magnitude reference scale.
