Kickstarter

In a few more hours the Kickstarter fund raising for the DVD release of Mystery in the Sky is closing. Thank you all so much for making this a success and so much fun!

Last chance to get some more DVDs before it goes on Amazon or raise your pledge to $250 and immortalize yourself, your family or your astronomy club with your name on the credits.

Thank you everybody!
Have a great weekend

Guustaaf

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The internet has given us some interesting new words. One of them is "crowdsourcing." Wikipedia defines it as follows: "Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call". It may be a new word, but the AAVSO has been doing this long before the internet was even science fiction. The Citizen Sky project has done much to renew the AAVSO, putting more of its original modus operandi on the internet's track of zero-friction.

In accomplishing the funding of the DVD release of Mystery in the Sky, the community of variable star observers has passed another milestone in showing what it is capable of as a group. Or, to put it in simpler terms: Yeaaaahhhhh!. We did it!!!

Many years ago citizen scientist Benjamin Franklin laid the foundation for the understanding of electricity. Not even he could have foreseen that someday what he started would result in a technology that allows today's citizen scientists to band together as we are doing here.

I am grateful to all who were so helpful in producing this documentary and I am equally grateful to all of you who pledged to make the DVD a reality. I tremendously enjoyed this process and dare I say that Kickstarter puts the fun back in funding?

The DVD will include the film produced for the Citizen Sky project by the California Academy of Sciences as a bonus feature. It will also contain an insert to further promote the AAVSO. I will do everything I can to get the DVD out as soon as possible and if it all goes as normal you will have yours in the mail mid-November.

Kickstarter is still a good place to order the DVD, should you know of anyone who wishes to do so because it won't be until early December that it will be available on Amazon. There are still a few days left for anyone or group who wishes to get 25 DVDs at wholesale and their name on the credits.

Thank you all so much, you made it happen!

Guustaaf
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The people of the AAVSO are really passionate about what they do. A big part of that is to get the word out about astronomy, somehow convey the enthusiasm that they have to everyone out there. This morning Aaron Price, the guy that came up with the idea for the Citizen Sky project, proposed to the AAVSO director Arne Henden to match the remaining pledges for this DVD. Arne did not just say yes, he pledged to match it out of his own pocket. To me, it is very inspiring to see someone who so completely believes in what they do.

So there we have it. Once we are at $1402.50 Arne will bring it up to $1600.

Thank you so much Arne!

Arne and Linda Henden (from the AAVSO website)

Susan West of Science for Citizens interviewed Aaron Price and Guustaaf Damave about the Citizen Sky project and the documentary for this article:
http://www.scienceforcitizens.net/blog/2010/09/citizen-sky-needs-citizen-scientists/

It is definitely worth a read and so is the rest of the site.

Citizen scientist Alice Few on mount Rainier in Washington state.

I don't think I have ever heard anyone sum up so clearly what makes astronomy so exciting as Rebecca did in this documentary.

Yes, we are at 53 percent funding and also a little less than half the time left.

I want to thank everyone for choosing to make a difference. Perhaps you know someone who would like to know about this documentary.

Are you sure you will have enough DVDs to give one to everyone at Christmas?

Have a great weekend.

Guustaaf