Citizen Science project: "Citizen Sky" (no BOINC included)

Hi all!

This looks like a nice project to generate interest for astronomy:

http://www.citizensky.org

The project is sponsored by the American Association of Variable Star Observers and aims at collecting data of the eclipse of a specific variable star, Epsilon Aurigae by a yet unknown dark object for the next two years or so, reducing the brightness of the star roughly by 50%. This happens every 27.1 years and it's not yet fully understood.

I think it's a nice introduction to variable star astronomy and a great opportunity to involve the public in a science project, just like BOINC, but aiming to harvest visual observation time rather than computation time. I'm not sure just how "necessary" the public participation is, but it seems to be fun and you'll learn a lot about photometry if you do it seriously, e.g, with a DSLR.

A video presentation by the project manager can be found here YouTube video (outtakes included :-) ).

BTW I'm afraid the star in question, Epsilon Aurigae, can not be observed from the southern hemisphere, sorry for the guys down under.

Bikeman