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AAVSO/BAA Day 1: Binary Adventures

Variable stars come in many forms – there are happy little regular stars, widely separated and merrily circling ones dancing an eon long dance. Some white dwarfs – dead stars, cooling into stellar embers of stars – become vampires as they...

AAVSO/BAA Day 1: Paula and Pulsating White Dwarfs

After several days of travel, I’ve settled into the front row of the BAA/AAVSO meeting in New Hall, in Cambridge, UK. Dr. Paula Skody is giving an excellent talk on pro-am collaboration to make Hubble Space Telescope observations of cataclysmic variables. She...

A Sunny Morning in Oxford

I awoke to the following this morning. I now understand why every faculty member I’ve ever had who went to Oxford complains about the ugliness of their current university (any one of many). Really, can anything in the states compete? They also have quite...

Out of Munich and into England

After giving a 2pm talk yesterday, I was off and running for the airport and quick flight to London. To say that I am a laid back traveler is probably an understatement, and to say I vaguely plan things ahead and then forget to print out useful emails is perhaps more...