Lowell Observatory recently announced a new initiative to support collaboration between amateur and professional astronomers. // photo by James Jones
It seems that every day, more researchers and observatories are learning the value of collaboration between amateur and professional astronomers. With the equipment access and computer skills of a growing number of technically capable hobbyists, they can participate in scientific research like never before.
Now, Lowell Observatory hopes to take advantage of these capabilities with its new Lowell Amateur Research Initiative (LARI). The program brings together professional and amateur astronomers, allowing interested hobbyists to participate in cutting-edge research and potentially make significant contributions to science. Currently, Lowell researchers are conducting nine projects that would benefit from the participation of amateur astronomers. They include searching for asteroids in archived Lowell images, gathering photometric data of low-mass stars, monitoring star-forming regions for sudden outbursts, searching data for transient events like exoplanet transits or variable stars, and more. Visit
http://www.lowell.edu/LARI_directed_research.php for a full list of projects. If you’re interested, you can create an account with LARI, and Lowell will match you with the best fit of researcher and project.
I know many of you have been looking for a pro-am collaborative project to get involved in, and Lowell is providing a great opportunity. So check out the initiative today!