Mentoring, a Shared Responsibility (Abstract)

Volume 41 number 1 (2013)

Timothy R. Crawford

79916 W. Beach Road, Arch Cape, OR 97102; tcarchcape@yahoo.com

Abstract

(Abstract only) While the AAVSO has a variety of mentoring resources, including the Mentoring team supervised by Mike Simonsen, there is an enormous need for AAVSO participants to individually and actively mentor observers who have missed some of the basics of observing (visual or CCD), whether they are new or have been observing for a long time. Without this shared responsibility, by our silence we risk either losing new observers or enabling observers not following good procedures to contribute erroneous data. We will discuss some of the common mistakes that both visual and CCD observers make, how they can be detected, and how AAVSO members and observers can and should help those in need of mentoring.