Many amateur astronomers, after being involved with observing for a number of years, want to do something more. The would like to make a meaningful scientific contribution to astronomy. Fortunately, for these "advanced" amateur astronomers, there are many opportunities to contribute. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still contibute to leading edge knowledge. This is made possible by the availability of affordable, advanced electronic equipment, especially the CCD camera. Although amateurs can collect and reduce data on their own, few are able to negotiate the rigors of getting their data published in a professional astronomical journal where the contribution becomes available to everyone. The best solution is for amateurs to team up with a professional astronomer or to contribute their data to the database of an organization devoted to collecting amateur data.

• AAVSO The American Association of Variable Star Observers
• IOTA - International Occultation Timing Association
• IMO - International Meteor Organization.
• ALPO Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers.
• BeSS: A place for the spectroscopy of Be stars.

Many of these organizations have mentorship programs where they can find someone who lives near you who can show you how to get involved in the astronomy they do. Through the following websites you can likely find a new observing buddy who can introduce you to new worlds:

• The AAVSO mentorship program.
• The ALPO has a training program and also a youth program.

For those who want to work more closely with a professional, you need to make personal contact with a professional. Here are some leads that may help with that:

• I.A.P.P.P. International Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry
• Sky and Telescope: Page on Pro-Am Collaboration
• AAS WGPAC: American Astronomical Society - Working Group on Professional-Amateur Collaboration
• Astronomical Ring for Access to Spectroscopy
• Society for Astronomical Sciences

Finally, here is a small (incomplete) collection of other serious observing opportunities for amateur astronomers plus some links to a few past meetings devoted to Pro-Am (as Professional-Amateur collaboration is called) activities:

Sample of Observing Campaigns:

• There is a campaign to observe the Periastron Passage of the Colliding-Wind Binary WR 140 in January 12, 2009 and an opportunity to observe WR 140 from the Canary Islands
• Thers is a campaign to observe Epsilon Aurigae in 2009.

Sample of Meetings:

• Ecole d'astrophysique du CNRS Outils de l'astrophysique pour une coopération professionnels/amateurs La Rochelle (24-28 Mai 2006)

compiled by the CASCA education Webteam, (2006)