The Impact of Long-Term Monitoring on Variable Star Research: Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Data Handling, Archiving

Long-term monitoring is of fundamental significance in solving many important problems in astrophysics and, furthermore, has unequalled value in extending observational runs with small telescopes for the education of young astronomers in order to teach them how to secure high-quality observational data over many years. The Impact of Long-Term Monitoring on Variable Star Research contains reports based on the analysis of data collected in the visible, IR and radio measurement ranges, as well as the design and history of well known photometric systems. Though the reporting of novel results forms an important part of the book, there are also reports of eight discussion sessions covering more general areas, such as extinction monitoring, the problems of archival storage of astronomical data, service observation, the role played by long-term monitoring in graduate teaching and thesis supervision, the interplay between the great observational effort and theory, the contribution of LTM to new knowledge of fundamental data, and the increasing decommissioning of telescopes of modest aperture.

Table of Contents:
Long-Term Photometry of Variables: The story of HD 160529.- New astrophysical insights based on historical and modern data of ? Carinae 1935–1992.- Evidence for circumstellar disks around variable Herbig Ae/Be stars from long-term photometry.- Ten years of monitoring southern Be stars: Results from the ESO LTPV project.- Long-term monitoring of the complex variations of Be stars.- Discussion No. 1: Be stars.- Long-term radio monitoring of Wolf-Rayet stars with non-thermal emission.- Long-term infrared photometry of WC stars making circumstellar dust.- Photometric monitoring of Wolf-Rayet stars: Strömgren uvby and narrow-band photometry.- Variability of Wolf-Rayet stars: constraints on the properties of hot-star winds.- DISCUSSION No. 2: Wolf-Rayet stars.- Long-term variability of Barium and S stars.- A long-term photometric campaign approach to the study of symbiotic variables.- Long-term light and period variations of some contact binaries.- Long-term monitoring of cyclic frequency variability in roAp stars at the Sutherland station of the South African Astronomical Observatory.- Long-term photometry of Ap stars.- Discussion No. 3: Binaries and Ap stars.- Problems and perspectives of long-term observations of Population I and II Cepheids, RR Lyrae-type and other luminous pulsating stars.- The story of AI Velorum: A review.- Long-term monitoring of the extreme galactic Cepheids V810 Centauri and V473 Lyrae.- Hot pulsating stars in the Geneva system.- Discussion No. 4: Pulsating stars.- Instrumental effects in stellar spectroscopy.- Investigation of Luminous Blue Variables of the Magellanic Clouds during the past decade with LTPV, CASPEC and IUE.- Fiber-linked echelle spectrographs: the ideal tool for high-resolution spectroscopic long-term monitoring.- Spectroscopicmonitoring of OBA stars.- Multichannel multicolour photometry: Experiences from a long-term monitoring campaign.- Discussion No. 5: Spectroscopy.- Long-term optical monitoring of Gamma-ray burst sources.- Archives of variable-star observations - History, use and prospects.- Computerised very-long-term monitoring of variables and the Sonneberg Plate Archive.- Discussion No. 6: Photographic photometry.- Lessons learned from 30 years of long-term variable-star photometry.- Long-term aspects of multi-site campaigns.- Geneva photometry and its homogeneity.- Photometric monitoring: Accuracy, homogeneity and precision in existing long-term projects.- Strömgren photometry, galactic research, and variable stars.- General Discussion — Chair: C. Sterken.- Resolution.