2010 Presentations
Opportunities and Plans: the Directions of Southern Hemisphere Variable Star Research
Dr Thomas Richards,
Variable Stars South
Variable star research is changing massively thanks to the impact of new instrumentation and communication, in the hands of amateurs as well as professionals. I review the developments in four areas: Miras and long period variables, Cepheids and related pulsating stars, eclipsing binaries, and cataclysmic variables all the way from dwarf novae to supernovae. I examine the likely impact of new surveys such as Bright Star Monitor South, report on the situation of southern hemisphere research and Variable Stars South; and make conclusions about the future of southern hemisphere amateur-based variable star research.
Tom's primary research interest is variable stars, in particular eclipsing binaries. In 2009 he was appointed Director of the Variable Star Section of the RASNZ, now called Variable Stars South. Tom was awarded the Murray Geddes Prize of the Royal Astronomical Society of NZ in 1959 and the Berenice Page Medal of the Astronomical Society of Australia in 2006, for his research work as an amateur astronomer. He is a past president of the Astronomical Society of Victoria.