About This 100th Anniversary Issue

Volume 40 number 1 (2012)

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John R. Percy

Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto ON M5S 3H4, Canada

Abstract

Welcome to the Centennial Issue of The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers! The AAVSO was founded in 1911 by a small group of amateur astronomers, led by William Tyler Olcott, and encouraged by Edward Pickering, Director of the Harvard College Observatory. By 2011, it had become the most important organization through which amateurs can contribute significantly to astronomical research. In media articles about “citizen science,” the AAVSO is almost always mentioned.