Observer's Guide to Variable Stars

Martin Griffiths is a writer and professional astronomer. He is a recipient of the Astrobiology Society of Britain’s Public Outreach Award (2008) and the Astronomical League’s Outreach Master Award (2010). He also holds the League’s Master Observer certificate and has written or contributed to over 100 published science journal articles. He has written several books for Springer.Griffiths was one of the founder members of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute Science Communication Group, which was active from 2003 to 2006. He also managed a multi-million-pound European program in Astrobiology for adult learners across Wales from 2003 to 2008. Since then, he has been involved in promoting adult education across Wales. After spending 17 years as a lecturer at the University of South Wales, he is now Director of the Brecon Beacons Observatory, a Dark Sky Ambassador for the Brecon Beacons National Park, a committee member of the International Dark Sky Reserve Steering Groups of Snowdonia and Brecon Beacons National Parks, and a science presenter and consultant for Dark Sky Wales.Griffiths also works as a consultant to the Welsh Government through his involvement with the Dark Sky Discovery initiative, enabling public access to dark sky sites in association with Dark Sky Wales, Dark Sky Scotland and Natural England. He has spent many years directing stargazing events at the park and in the last three years has provided training for the BBNPA dark sky ambassadors.Griffiths is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; a member of the Astrobiology Society of Britain; the European Society for the History of Science: the British Astronomical Association; the British Science Association; the Webb Deep-Sky Society; the Society for Popular Astronomy; and the Astronomical League.

“Griffiths (emer., Univ. of South Wales, UK) wrote this monograph to inspire lay readers to become optical observers of variable stars (stars whose brightness changes over time). … Observer's Guide to Variable Stars is an excellent resource for anyone thinking about becoming an observer of the skies. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers.” (D. E. Hogg, Choice, Vol. 56 (12), August, 2019)

• Dedication.- Acknowledgements.- Preface.- Chapter 1: An Introduction to Variable Stars.- Chapter 2: The Astrophysics of Variable Stars.- Chapter 3: Observing Techniques.- Chapter 4 Instrumentation and Equipment.- Chapter 5: Variable Star Photometry.- Chapter 6: Observing Variable Stars with Binoculars.- Chapter 7: Giant Stars and Their Variability.- Chapter 8: Cepheids and Other Variable Types.- Chapter 9: Rotating Variable Stars.- Chapter 10: Following the Light -- Eclipsing Variable Stars.- Chapter 11: Explosive and Eruptive Variable Stars.- Chapter 12: Unusual Variables -- X-Rays and Visual GROs.- Chapter 13: Variable Star Associations.- Chapter 14: Variable Stars to Observe.- Appendix: Spectrosocopy of Variable Stars.- Glossary.- References and Further Reading.- Index.