Data: the Seestar Collective. Every image here was taken and shared by members of the Seestar Collective with their Seestar smart telescopes. Thank you to everyone who contributed nights.
Did your Seestar catch one?
Type your telescope's ID to see every session from it that I measured, and which variable stars it caught. The ID is in the header of any of your FITS images, on the TELESCOP line (for example S50_1a2b3c4d); the last part alone works too.
the star, 10-minute averagesa steady comparison star on the same night, for scalefull-cycle view only: the same star from a separate group of telescopes
Every star measured
All stars from the Variable Star Index (VSX) with a known period, brighter than magnitude 14.5, that sat on the frame through a night. The same search and filters apply. Click a star with a light curve to jump to it.
star
type
period (d)
Gaia G
sessions
largest swing (mag)
status
Submit your measurements to the AAVSO
If your telescope caught a variable star, you can add the measurements to the AAVSO's international database under your own observer code. I prepare the report files (green channel, 5-minute averages, in the AAVSO's file format); you check them and submit them yourself.
Look up your telescope above and press Copy request.
Send it to me as a Discord direct message, or by email. I check that the account matches the telescope before sending any report, so only the person who took the images gets them. Message me on Discordor email hello@skycruncher.io
Each session's images were read straight from the shared drive into memory, measured and dropped. No image was copied or kept, only the measurements.
Brightness comes from differential photometry against an ensemble of steady Gaia DR3 stars on the same frames, put on an approximate V scale from Gaia colors. It is untransformed, so levels can sit a few hundredths of a magnitude off a standard V.
Points are 10-minute averages. Brighter is up.
What the labels mean
Clearly varies: on at least one night the star's swing is at least 5 sigma and at least twice that of its comparison stars, and those comparison stars stay flat.
Likely varies: nearly as strong, or the comparison stars weren't quite flat that night.
Held up across sessions: I stacked every session of the star by where it falls in its cycle (the "full cycle" view), separately for two groups of telescopes chosen before anyone looked at the data. Both groups showed the same variation on their own.
Timing: a time of minimum or maximum that passed a 5-sigma test.
Please note
These are preliminary measurements. I have submitted none of them to the AAVSO; the people who took the images can, under their own observer code (see above).
A few stars share their light with a close neighbor, or depend on which aperture size is used. Cards that say so should be read with care.
Periods and types are from VSX. A star that doesn't vary here may simply have been caught at a quiet phase.