One of the project initiated after Oleron pro/am meeting is the long term monitoring of Be stars, project led by Coralie Neiner from Paris-Meudon observatory. It led to several initiatives such as:
-creation of a web page to present potential pro/am project: ARAS main web page
-creation of a Yahoo discussion group Spectro-L to exchange about pro/am projects in spectroscopy
-kick off of the Be Star Spectra database and Be stars long term monitoring
-design and first batch through AUDE association of the Lhires III spectrograph (leading the creation of Shelyak Instrument company)
-later on creation of ARAS forum
-and ARAS database for non Be star programs (VV Cep stars, P Cygni, cataclysmic variables...)
Professional astronomers have access to equipment we, amateur astronomers, do not have access to: very large telescopes (2m to 10m class), very high resolution spectrographs (HARPS, SOPHIE: 70000 to 140000 resolving power), spectropolarimeters (NARVAL, ESPADON), interferometers, infrared spectrographs, etc...
But they usually need paperwork and long delay before having telescope time access. Because telescope time is expensive, they can't run long term survey and prefere short term results. They can't get telescope time to observe Deneb for exemple - it is not "serious" enough for the professionals! :-)
Amateur astronomers on the contrary have the advantage of beeing reactive. On nova Del 2013 for exemple, first amateur spectra was done couple of hours after the announcement.
The number of amateur astronomical spectroscopists is increasing and I would estimate the number of spectroscopist in the range of 5000-10000, but the one having a slit (or let say a more "scientifcal" spectrograph) in the range of 500-1000, and the one actually doing pro/am work with their equipment in the range of 50-100.
They are also spread over the globe (well, lot of them are in France and Europe and somehow there could be more amateurs doing pro/am spectroscopy in the US/Canada and Asia). This means that when one can't observe a specific target due to bad weather for exemple, another one may have clearer skies and could observe it.
This advantage led for exemple to more than 70000 spectra taken by amateurs (ok, echelle spectra count several times, one for each order... but hey, this is the same for professional astronomers and their number of spectra is even lower).
A good exemple of networking is on the recent outburst of V442 And. When I discovered the outburst, I uploaded the spectra on BeSS database and sent a private note to the administrators letting them know about it.
The following night, I couldn't observe but Christian Buil picked up on it and took one echelle spectrum. Then I observed several nights but on august 27th, my weather was bad and I couldn't observed. I sent a note to Joan Guarro Flo who was able to take one echelle spectrum.
This led to having at least one spectrum per night, so a good coverage of the emission line. Of course it would have be reat to have a continuous 24 hours follow up with support of North America and Asian observers; but at least we got a measurement every 24 hours.
Here is the result of the first 8 nights following the outburst discovery:
It does show that the emission is constantly changing. More observations may reveal a periodic behaviour - we will see later.
My point is that ARAS if more than a Ring... it is a Network of observers. It is an informal community and behing the friendship that can exist (thanks to pro/am meeting every 3 years, OHP spectroscopy workshop every year, and of course my travels around the globe when I was working for Shelyak), this network leads to mutual motivation, support and collaboration.
Astronomy rocks, Spectroscopy rocks, and ARAS rocks !
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