Abstract: Spectroscopic monitoring of eruptive stars (e.g. symbiotic binaries, classical novae) by amateurs around the world, in both the northern and southern hemispheres, is a fundamental activity of the ARAS (Astronomical Ring for Amateur Spectroscopy) initiative. The group of volunteers demonstrates what can be accomplished with a network of independent, very small telescopes (from 20 to 60 cm), furnished with spectrographs of different resolution, from ∼500 to ∼15000, and covering the range from 3600 to nearly 8000 Å. Acquisition, reduction and analysis of the spectra will be described. The observing program concentrates on bright symbiotic stars (57, to date) and novae (35, to date). The main features of the ARAS activity are rapid response to alerts, long term monitoring and high cadence. A part of the program involves collaborations based on requests from professional teams (e.g. CH Cyg, AG Dra, R Aqr, SU Lyn, V339 Del) for long term monitoring or specific events. Some examples of the evolution of basic observational parameters during outbursts and/or as a function of orbital phase (e.g. radial velocities, equivalent widths or line profiles) are presented. The spectra are gathered in the open access Eruptive Stars Database that has been used for several publications by professional teams.
Full text version of this article in PostScript (600dpi) format compressed by gzip; or in PDF.
Last update: May 30, 2019