The HOA Materials include three software programs, which have all been written for the PC (Macintosh software is not available at this time.)

COMPUTER SOFTWARE:

HOAFUN

HOAFUN is an interactive and easy-to-use tutorial for making variable star estimates and understanding the light curves of different types of variable stars. It contains a game where you estimate the magnitudes of a variable star as you build your own light curve as well as several tutorials that illustrate the different lightcurves of popular variables such as SS CYG, Z CAM, U GEM, and more. HOAFUN is generally designed for junior high and high school aged students, however, it is a good tool for any one new to variable star observing. Both a Windows version and a DOS-based version of this program are available.

Screenshots of HOAFUN

Magnitude Estimating Game - Estimate the magnitude of a variable star on consecutive days and then plot out your estimates and see how they compare to the real data.

Below are the before and after shots of the Variable Star Plotting Demonstration. This illustrates how important each observation is to the creation of a good light curve and to the study of variable stars.

Light curve with 7 Observations

Light curve with 858 Observations

Download HOAFUN

HOAFUN 2.0 is a Windows version of the DOS program HOAFUN distributed in the AAVSO Hands-On Astrophysics (HOA) curriculum. Click here to download this new release of HOA designed for Windows machines.

VSTAR

VSTAR is a dual-purpose software: 1) It will display a graph of the several dozen stars from the included AAVSO International Database, or from data provided by the students themselves; and 2) It is a sophisticated, powerful mathematical and statistical data analysis tool. Both teachers and students can use the VSTAR program to look at different types of variable stars, their light curves, and determine their periods, as well as analyze the periodicity by producing phase diagrams. A complete VSTAR manual is included in the appendix.

Here is a screen shot of the VSTAR program

HOAENTER

This is a data-entry program which may be used to prepare data for loading into the VSTAR program or to prepare variable star observations to be submitted to the AAVSO in the correct format.