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AAVSO Legacy CV Program

There are many stars for which the AAVSO has visual data going back many decades, some 100 years or more. The AAVSO openly encourages the continued observation of these stars by visual observers into the foreseeable future. We call these stars "Legacy Program" stars.

The long time line of observations of the Legacy Stars makes these data particularly useful and scientifically interesting for many reasons. Matthew Templeton, former AAVSO Science Director, explains-

"As an example, for any variable with a long-term well observed light curve the scientific values of visual observing come from (a) the long time span, (b) the statistical similarity of errors from visual observers, and (c) the bandpass similarity of human vision across a wide population of observers.

For point (a), long time spans can do at least three valuable things: build up signal-to-noise in the signal domain where there are weak signals less than 0.5 magnitudes; increase frequency precision where periods are stable over the long-term; and uncover long-term changes in behavior.

For point (b), signal processing in the presence of noise is something researchers deal with all the time, so the fact that binned visual observations may have an rms scatter of 0.1-0.3 is not a big deal.

What is much more important is that for a large population of observers, the errors are normally distributed. So when we have a light curve with dozens or hundreds of observers, that's actually a plus, because it makes it more likely that analysis techniques designed for data with normally distributed errors are going to be appropriate.

For point (c), this is really important, because with visual observers, the bandpass under observation may be somewhat fuzzy, but at least it's nearly *the same bandpass* across a sizable population of observers."

The AAVSO Legacy CVs were selected from all the cataclysmic variables in the AAVSO International Database based on the number of observations in the DB (minimum 2500), and the years of observations (minimum 20 years).

Name Position Type Magnitude range
Z And  23 33 39.95 +48 49 05.9  ZAND  7.7 - 11.3 V
RX And  01 04 35.52 +41 17 57.8  UGZ  10.3 - 14.8 V
AR And  01 45 03.25 +37 56 32.9  UGSS  11.0 - 17.6 V
DX And  23 29 46.68 +43 45 04.1  UGSS  11.0 - 15.5 V
EG And  00 44 37.19 +40 40 45.7  ZAND+E  6.97 - 7.8 V
FN And  01 11 57.55 +35 17 24.3  UGSS  12.9 - 19.3 V
FO And  01 15 32.09 +37 37 34.2  UGSU  13.1 - 17.5 V
LS And  00 32 10.22 +41 58 11.6  UGWZ:  11.7 - 20.2 B
PQ And  02 29 29.55 +40 02 40.0  UGWZ+ZZ/GWLIB  10.0 - 19.2 V
VY Aqr  21 12 09.20 -08 49 37.0  UGSU  10.0 - 17.52 V
VZ Aqr  21 30 24.59 -02 59 17.1  UGSS  12.0 - 18.4 V
UU Aql  19 57 18.77 -09 19 21.2  UGSS  11.0 - 17.0 V
DH Aql  19 26 10.82 -10 15 28.9  UGSU  12.5 - <17.0 p
FO Aql  19 16 38.12 +00 07 37.4  UGSS  13.6 - 17.5 p
KX Aql  19 33 53.66 +14 17 47.8  UGSU  12.5 - 17.5: p
V0603 Aql  18 48 54.64 +00 35 02.9  NA  -1.4 - 12.4 V
V0725 Aql  19 56 45.03 +10 49 32.7  UGSU  13.7 - 16.2 p
V1413 Aql  19 03 46.85 +16 26 17.1  ZAND+E  10.6 - 15.1 V
AT Ara  17 30 33.82 -46 05 58.7  UGSS  11.5 - 15.32 V
BF Ara  17 38 21.33 -47 10 41.5  UGSU  13.6 - <16.0 p
FV Ara  17 35 10.03 -63 02 50.1  UG  12.0 V - <18.0 p
SV Ari  03 25 03.34 +19 49 52.9  UGWZ  14.0: - 22.1 V
TT Ari  02 06 53.09 +15 17 41.8  NL/VY  10.2 - 16.5 V
SS Aur  06 13 22.43 +47 44 25.3  UGSS  10.3 - 16.8 V
KR Aur  06 15 43.91 +28 35 09.1  NL/VY  11.3 - 17.8 V
TT Boo  14 57 44.80 +40 43 40.8  UGSU  12.7 - <15.6 p
UZ Boo  14 44 01.21 +22 00 54.8  UGWZ  11.5 - 20.2 V
Z Cam  08 25 13.20 +73 06 39.2  UGZ  10 - 14.5 V
AF Cam  03 32 15.48 +58 47 22.1  UG  13.4 - 17.6 p
SY Cnc  09 01 03.31 +17 53 56.0  UGZ  11.0 - 14.0 V
YZ Cnc  08 10 56.65 +28 08 33.2  UGSU  10.5 - 16.3 V
AK Cnc  08 55 21.23 +11 18 15.2  UGSU  13.0 - <17.0 p
AT Cnc  08 28 36.93 +25 20 03.0  UGZ  12.7 - 15.2 V
CC Cnc  08 36 19.17 +21 21 05.5  UGSU  13.1 - 17.6 B
EG Cnc  08 43 04.03 +27 51 49.8  UGWZ  11.9 - 19.2 V
TX CVn  12 44 42.06 +36 45 50.7  ZAND+ELL  9.34 - 10.28 V
HL CMa  06 45 17.21 -16 51 34.6  UGZ  10.6 - 14.9 V
SV CMi  07 31 08.41 +05 58 48.4  UGSS  13.0 - 17.1 V
OY Car  10 06 22.10 -70 14 04.6  UGSU+E  11.2 - 16.2 V
AM Cas  02 26 23.38 +71 18 31.5  UGSS  12.3 - 15.3 V
GX Cas  00 49 01.49 +56 52 43.6  UGSU  13.3 - 18.5 V
HT Cas  01 10 12.96 +60 04 36.3  UGSU+E  12.6 - 19.32 V
KU Cas  01 31 02.40 +57 54 12.4  UGSS  13.3 - 18.0 p
V0630 Cas  23 48 51.95 +51 27 39.3  UG  12.3 - 17.1 p
BV Cen  13 31 19.51 -54 58 33.6  UGSS  10.7 - 13.6 V
MU Cen  12 12 53.87 -44 28 16.0  UGSS  11.8 - 15.0 V
NN Cen  13 14 15.61 -60 52 46.6  UGSS  13.2 - 17.5 p
V0436 Cen  11 14 00.06 -37 40 47.7  UGSU  10.8 - 16.5 V
V0442 Cen  11 24 51.96 -35 54 37.0  UGSS  11.89 - <16.5 V
V0485 Cen  12 57 23.22 -33 12 05.6  UGSU  12.9 p - 18.2 V
V0504 Cen  14 12 49.18 -40 21 37.5  NL/VY  12.0 - <18.0 p
V0803 Cen  13 23 44.54 -41 44 29.4  UGSU/IBWD  13.2 - 17.7 V
WW Cet  00 11 24.77 -11 28 43.1  UGZ  10.4 - 15.8 V
WX Cet  01 17 04.18 -17 56 22.6  UGSU  9.5 - 18.0 p
Z Cha  08 07 28.22 -76 32 01.4  UGSU+EA  11.5 - 16.23 V
AE Cir  14 44 51.33 -69 23 34.6  ZAND+ELL:  11.5 - 15.5 V
TV Col  05 29 25.53 -32 49 03.9  DQ+E  12.2 - 14.5 V
AL Com  12 32 25.90 +14 20 43.5  UGWZ  13.0 - 20.0 p
T CrB  15 59 30.16 +25 55 12.6  NR+ELL  2.0 - 10.8 V
TT Crt  11 34 47.26 -11 45 31.0  UG  12.5 - 15.3 V
SS Cyg  21 42 42.79 +43 35 09.9  UGSS  7.7 - 12.4 V
BF Cyg  19 23 53.51 +29 40 29.2  ZAND  9.1 - 13.5 V
CH Cyg  19 24 33.07 +50 14 29.1  ZAND+SR  5.6 - 10.1 V
EM Cyg  19 38 40.11 +30 30 28.4  UGZ+E  11.9 - 14.4 p
EY Cyg  19 54 36.71 +32 21 55.1  UGSS  11.4 - 15.5 V
V0404 Cyg  20 24 03.83 +33 52 02.2  LMXB/XN  11.2 - 18.8 V
V0476 Cyg  19 58 24.48 +53 37 06.7  NA  1.9 - 17.1 V
V0503 Cyg  20 27 17.41 +43 41 22.5  UGSU  13.4 - 17.6 V
V0516 Cyg  20 47 09.79 +41 55 26.8  UGSS  13.8 - 16.8 p
V0542 Cyg  19 49 10.52 +58 31 59.3  UGSS  13.0 - 18.3: p
V0630 Cyg  21 34 59.22 +40 40 18.8  UGSU  13.4 - 17.2 p
V0632 Cyg  21 36 04.22 +40 26 19.3  UGSU  12.6 - 17.5 p
V0751 Cyg  20 52 12.80 +44 19 26.0  NL/VY  13.8 - 16.3 p
V0795 Cyg  19 34 34.32 +31 32 11.1  UGSS  13.4 - <17.9: p
V0811 Cyg  19 48 23.31 +36 26 23.9  UGSS  12.7 - <17.7 p
V1016 Cyg  19 57 05.01 +39 49 36.4  NC+M  10.05 - 17.5 B
V1028 Cyg  20 00 56.43 +56 56 37.0  UGSU  12.7 - 19.5 V
V1251 Cyg  21 40 54.38 +48 39 43.1  UGWZ  12.5 - 20.3 V
V1454 Cyg  19 53 38.47 +35 21 45.4  UGSU  13.9 - 20.5 V
V1500 Cyg  21 11 36.61 +48 09 02.4  NA/AM+E  1.69 - <21.0 V
V1668 Cyg  21 42 35.34 +44 01 54.6  NA  6 - 20.0: V
V1819 Cyg  19 54 37.45 +35 42 16.1  NB  9.3 - 17.0 V
Q Cyg  21 41 43.93 +42 50 29.1  NA  3 - 15.6 V
HR Del  20 42 20.35 +19 09 39.3  NB  3.6 - 12.1 V
AB Dra  19 49 06.54 +77 44 23.4  UG  12.3 - 15.8 V
AG Dra  16 01 41.01 +66 48 10.2  ZAND  7.9 - 10.3 V
DO Dra  11 43 38.51 +71 41 20.6  UG/DQ  10.0 - 16.5 V
AH Eri  04 22 38.11 -13 21 30.2  UGSS/DQ:  13.5 - 18.5 V
AQ Eri  05 06 13.11 -04 08 07.3  UGSU  12.5 - 17.8 V
U Gem  07 55 05.21 +22 00 04.8  UGSS+E  8.2 - 14.9 V
AW Gem  07 22 40.75 +28 30 17.0  UGSU  12.9 - 19.4 V
IR Gem  06 47 34.69 +28 06 22.3  UGSU  11.2 - 18.7: V
YY Her  18 14 34.18 +20 59 20.9  ZAND+ELL  11.1 - <14.0 B
AH Her  16 44 10.01 +25 15 02.0  UGZ  10.9 - 14.7 V
AM Her  18 16 13.34 +49 52 04.1  AM+E  12.3 - 15.7 V
CH Her  18 34 46.33 +24 48 01.7  UG  13.5 - 17.0: p
DQ Her  18 07 30.26 +45 51 32.4  NB/DQ+EA  1.3 - 18.08 V
V0443 Her  18 22 07.85 +23 27 20.0  ZAND  11.42 - 11.72 V
V0446 Her  18 57 21.60 +13 14 29.0  NA+UG  2.8 - 18.8 p
V0533 Her  18 14 20.51 +41 51 22.6  NA+NL/VY  3.0 p - 16.4 V
AG Hya  09 50 29.76 -23 45 17.2  UG  14.4 CV - 19.2 V
EX Hya  12 52 24.22 -29 14 56.0  UG/DQ+E  10.0 - 14.3 V
VW Hyi  04 09 11.28 -71 17 41.4  UGSU  8.4 - 14.4 V
WX Hyi  02 09 50.83 -63 18 39.9  UGSU  9.6 - 14.85 V
TT Ind  20 33 37.13 -56 33 45.2  UG  11.9 - 18.3 V
TU Ind  20 33 10.56 -45 26 00.9  UG  12.9 - 15.54 B
CP Lac  22 15 41.11 +55 37 01.2  NA  2.0 - 17.7 V
X Leo  09 51 01.47 +11 52 31.2  UGSS  11.8 - 17.2 V
RZ Leo  11 37 22.27 +01 48 58.5  UGWZ  11.5 - 19.2 V
SS Lep  06 04 59.13 -16 29 04.0  ELL+ZAND  4.82 - 5.06 V
BR Lup  15 35 53.09 -40 34 05.0  UGSU  13.1 - 17.5 p
AY Lyr  18 44 26.76 +37 59 51.9  UGSU  12.5 - 18.4 B
CY Lyr  18 52 41.38 +26 45 31.5  UGSS  12.9 - 18.0: V
DM Lyr  18 58 44.45 +30 15 33.3  UGSU  13.6 - 18.0 p
LL Lyr  18 35 12.82 +38 20 04.4  UG  12.8 - 17.1 p
MV Lyr  19 07 16.29 +44 01 08.6  NL/VY  12.2 - 18 B
V0344 Lyr  18 44 39.18 +43 22 28.0  UGSU  13.8 - 19 V
TU Men  04 41 40.70 -76 36 45.9  UGSU  11.6 - 18.5 V
CW Mon  06 36 54.58 +00 02 17.2  UGSS  11.9 - 17.2 V
SY Mus  11 32 10.00 -65 25 11.5  ZAND+SR  10.2 - 12.7 V
HP Nor  16 20 49.57 -54 53 22.8  UG  12.8 - 16.41 V
IK Nor  16 25 28.87 -55 20 02.8  UG  12.9 - 16.3 p
RS Oph  17 50 13.17 -06 42 28.6  NR+LB  4.3 - 12.5 V
V0426 Oph  18 07 51.69 +05 51 47.8  UGZ/DQ:  11.2 - 13.4 V
V2051 Oph  17 08 19.09 -25 48 31.7  UGSU+E  11.6 - 17.5 V
BI Ori  05 23 51.77 +01 00 30.6  UG  13.9 - 17.6 V
CN Ori  05 52 07.79 -05 25 00.6  UGSS  12.1 - 16.2 V
CZ Ori  06 16 43.23 +15 24 11.3  UGSS  12.1 - 17.6 V
V0344 Ori  06 15 18.95 +15 30 59.3  UG  14.1 - 19.1 V
RU Peg  22 14 02.55 +12 42 11.3  UGSS+ZZ:  9.5 - 13.0 V
AG Peg  21 51 01.98 +12 37 32.1  ZAND+R  6.0 - 9.4 V
EF Peg  21 15 04.12 +14 03 49.2  UGSU  10.7 - 18.5 V
IP Peg  23 23 08.60 +18 24 59.6  UG+E  12 - 18.6 B
TZ Per  02 13 50.96 +58 22 52.3  UGZ  12.0 - 15.6 V
UV Per  02 10 08.32 +57 11 21.2  UGSU  11.0 - 18.2 V
UW Per  02 12 29.76 +57 05 19.3  UG:  14.9: p - 17.5: V
AX Per  01 36 22.70 +54 15 02.3  ZAND+E  9.5 - 12.8 V
FO Per  04 08 34.95 +51 14 48.3  UG  11.8 - 16 V
GK Per  03 31 12.01 +43 54 15.4  NA/DQ+UG  0.2 - 14.0 V
KT Per  01 37 08.79 +50 57 20.4  UGSS+ZZ  11.5 - 15.9 V
RR Pic  06 35 36.06 -62 38 24.3  NB  1.0 - 12.65 V
TY Psc  01 25 39.35 +32 23 09.0  UGSU  11.7 - 18.0 V
TY PsA  22 49 39.85 -27 06 53.8  UGSU  12 - 17 B
RX Pup  08 14 12.31 -41 42 29.1  ZAND+M  8.5 - 14.8 V
UY Pup  07 46 31.25 -12 57 09.1  UG  13.0 - 16.1 V
BV Pup  07 49 05.26 -23 34 00.4  UGSS  12.9 - 15.7 V
BX Pup  07 54 15.57 -24 19 36.4  UGZ  13.7 - 18.0 V
CP Pup  08 11 46.06 -35 21 05.0  NA/DQ  0.5 - <17.0 p
T Pyx  09 04 41.50 -32 22 47.5  NR  6.2 - 15.5 V
RZ Sge  20 03 18.55 +17 02 52.3  UGSU  12.3 - 17.7 V
WZ Sge  20 07 36.46 +17 42 14.7  UGWZ+E+ZZ  7 - 15.53 B
AW Sge  19 58 37.10 +16 41 28.4  UGSU  14.0 - <19.6 V
HM Sge  19 41 57.07 +16 44 39.6  NC+M  11.1 - 18.1 B
FM Sgr  18 17 18.26 -23 38 27.9  NA  8.2: - 16.5 p
FN Sgr  18 53 54.80 -18 59 40.8  ZAND+EA  10.8 - 14.0 V
V0441 Sgr  18 22 08.09 -25 28 47.4  NA  8.7 - 16.5 p
V0618 Sgr  18 07 56.91 -36 29 37.0  ZAND  11.0 - <16.5 p
V1017 Sgr  18 32 04.47 -29 23 12.6  NA+UG  6.2 - 14.94 B
V1830 Sgr  18 13 50.95 -27 42 21.1  UG  11.5 V - 17.5 p
V4021 Sgr  18 38 14.88 -23 22 47.1  NA  8.9 - 18.0 V
U Sco  16 22 30.78 -17 52 42.8  NR+E  7.5 - 19.3 V
FQ Sco  17 08 04.46 -32 42 02.0  UGSS  12 - 18.45 B
MM Sco  17 30 45.25 -42 11 41.7  UGSU  13 - 18.53 B
V0723 Sco  17 50 05.30 -35 23 58.0  NA  9 - 22.2: B
UZ Ser  18 11 24.86 -14 55 34.1  UGZ  12.2 - 17.2 V
LX Ser  15 38 00.09 +18 52 03.3  NL/VY+E  13.3 - 17.4 B
MU Ser  17 55 52.77 -14 01 17.1  NA  7.7 - <20.0 V
RR Tel  20 04 18.54 -55 43 33.2  NC  6.5 - 16.5 p
KK Tel  20 28 38.47 -52 18 45.3  UGSU  13.5 - 19.6 V
EK TrA  15 14 00.44 -65 05 35.6  UGSU  10.4 - <15.0 V
SU UMa  08 12 28.28 +62 36 22.3  UGSU  10.8 - 16.0 V
SW UMa  08 36 42.71 +53 28 37.8  UGSU  9.7 - 16.5 V
BC UMa  11 52 15.83 +49 14 42.0  UGWZ  10.9 - 18.7 V
BZ UMa  08 53 44.15 +57 48 40.6  UGSU  10.5 - 15.3 B
CH UMa  10 07 00.71 +67 32 47.5  UG  10.7 - 15.3 V
CI UMa  10 18 13.13 +71 55 44.0  UGSU  13.8 - <17.5 p
CY UMa  10 56 57.01 +49 41 18.0  UGSU  11.9 - 17.0 p
DI UMa  09 12 16.20 +50 53 54.2  UGER  15.0 - 17.0 p
SS UMi  15 51 22.33 +71 45 11.9  UGSU  12.6 - 17.6 V
WY Vel  09 21 59.14 -52 33 51.6  ZAND  7.50 - 9.1 V
BB Vel  08 36 49.27 -47 22 37.1  UG  13.8 - 16 V
CU Vel  08 58 33.03 -41 47 51.7  UGSU  10.5 - 17.0 V
IX Vel  08 15 18.97 -49 13 20.7  NL  9.1 - 10.0 V
TW Vir  11 45 21.16 -04 26 05.7  UGSS  11.5 - 17.5 V
HV Vir  13 21 03.13 +01 53 29.7  UGWZ  11.5 - 19.9 V
QZ Vir  11 38 26.81 +03 22 06.8  UGSU  10 - 15.71 B
VW Vul  20 57 45.07 +25 30 25.7  UGZ  13.1 - 17.0 V
LV Vul  19 48 00.70 +27 10 19.6  NA  4.5 - 16.9 V
NQ Vul  19 29 14.75 +20 27 59.8  NB  6.01 - 18 V
PU Vul  20 21 13.31 +21 34 18.7  NC  8.7 - 16.6 p
PW Vul  19 26 05.05 +27 21 57.7  N  6.4 - 16.9 V
QU Vul  20 26 46.03 +27 50 43.3  NA+E  5.3 - 18.9 V