Statistical Software Development as an Example of a Citizen Sky Participant Team

Presenter(s): Mr David Benn

Affiliation(s): Astronomical Society of South Australia, American Association of Variable Star Observers

Session details: Posters, 2013-03-29 10:18:00

Abstract

This poster, by Arne Henden, Director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers and David Benn et al, was first presented at the January 2010 American Astronomical Society meeting and is re-used at NACAA with Arne’s permission. Understanding of authentic science by most people cannot be realized by simply posing a problem and collecting data. Communities of practice are an important element of modern science where discoveries are rarely the result of a single person experiencing an “Eureka!” moment. A core feature of the Citizen Sky project is the development and support of teams of participants with different, yet complimentary skill sets who work together towards a common goal. It is within these teams where the aspect of scientific inquiry really becomes accessible. By working with and debating with other team members (which remains consistent over time), a real community can form – much like those of a real, modern scientific project. Each team has a team leader and a professional assigned to act as an advisor. We present a short history, some early products and lessons learned from our first pilot team. This team is developing an open-source, high-end statistical analysis software package, called VStar, that will be used by other members of the Citizen Sky project as well as the general astronomical community interested in time series data analysis.

Biography

David is a Software Engineer, currently working in the area of hardware simulation and embedded software tools. He is a member of the Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSA) and enjoys using his Meade LX90 to share the night sky with members of ASSA and the general public. Having an interesting job is all well and good, but a desire to do more than just improve a company’s bottom line and make a contribution to the scientific community has motivated David to work with AAVSO to develop a new Java incarnation of VStar ( https://sourceforge.net/projects/vstar/), a variable star observation analysis program.