Astronomical Data Mining

www.amateur-astronomy.info

Over the last few years I have carried out many astronomical data mining or data analysis projects. I'm an astronomical data miner by inclination. I like nothing more than examining the 10,000+ catalogues on the Vizier site and it no exaggeration that I still get a strong sense of excitement when a new catalogue is released. I live in rural Shropshire close to the England/Wales border. The Vizier mirror hosted in Cambridge is the closest one to me but for some reason this mirror site is somewhat unreliable, especially at the weekends, so I usually access the French site.

My most successful research project resulted in an article describing how I had discovered 1233 previously unreported red variable stars being published in the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). The article can be downloaded here. Data mining projects of this type do pose some problems because few editors would be prepared to publish 1233 individual light curves. The common sense solution - publishing a selection with links to the remainder - is the preferred solution for most authors, referees and journal editors. Subsequently my results were also published on the Vizier site.


Links to Projects

Common Proper Motion Binary Stars in UCAC4

Identifying Red Dwarf Stars in the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data

Identifying Red Dwarf Stars in the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) data


This page was last updated on June 8th 2013.

Martin Nicholson - Ticklerton, Shropshire, United Kingdom