The American Association of Variable Star Observers was anticipated by Professor Bond of Harvard College Observatory when he told the young Hank Thoreau that there was plenty of work available to the naked eye and to modest spyglasses in monitoring the brightness of variable stars. Founded in 1911, the AAVSO has archived over 5,000,000 visual and photoelectric measurements of pulsating stars. When pro's want to know what RU Cameloparlis was doing on some night half a century ago, they ask the AAVSO. Likewise, if a modern researcher wants to know when to turn his orbiting X-ray observatory toward SS Cygni in order to catch it in outburst, likely as not, some amateur will tell him.

At top are several thousand observations of SS Cygni over a several-year span. The "peaks" come 30-60 days apart. Each blue dot is one observation. Each circle is an observation by George Kelley, Jr., who gets a lot of ink in this book (we go way back). Each of George's observations begins under the stars in his backyard observatory, visually comparing the brightness of the variable star to its constant neighbors. Each estimate gets recorded in a ledger. Observations are collated monthly and sent to HQ (all AAVSO observers refer to the home office as HQ, as in HeadQuarters -- makes me think of "Twelve O'Clock High" (or "Car 54")).

We finish the book, and this pile of scraps, with an aside about turning pro.