Parallel sessions

Observational Astronomy is greatly benefiting from contributions made by Amateur Astronomers. These are extremely wide-ranging and e.g. include follow up of gravitational microlensing events, supernovae or GAIA (and other photometric) alerts, monitoring of young stellar objects, cataclysmic variables, planetary debris around white dwarfs, Exoplanet Transits, pulsating variables, as well as Solar System observations such as Asteroid light curves, and positions. The aim of this session is to highlight the existing and forge new links between Amateur and Professional Astronomers and to discuss how professionals can better utilise the amateur resource pool and how organisations like the BAA can support this.