HOYS Citizen Science2026-10-14T13:50:09+01:00

HUNTING OUTBURSTING
YOUNG STARS

The HOYS citizen science project works with amateur astronomers on long-term photometric monitoring of young stellar clusters to find outbursting and other interesting objects for detailed follow up as well as the study of star and planet formation processes. Watch our short INTRODUCTION VIDEO.

The database is ONLINE (for data submission).

Brief interruptions of service are possible over the next few weeks due to tests on the new database structure.

HOYS CITIZEN SCIENCE

The project aims to observe nearby young clusters and star forming regions visible from the northern hemisphere to study their variable young stars. The target list currently contains 9 young clusters visible in the winter, 9 targets for the summer as well as 7 additional variable objects of interest.

We rely on amateur astronomers to use their imaging skills and equipment to monitor these target areas as often as possible in all available optical filters.

IC5070 Pelican

IC5070 Pelican Nebula, HOYS target 118

We are again a Global Sky Partner of Las Cumbres Observatory

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LATEST NEWS

Lightcurve of the week 405

16 October 2026|

This week we stick with the theme of dimming events and look at the light curve (one year worth) of the young star OT Mon. This one is situated [...]

Lightcurve of the week 404

16 October 2026|

Apologies - this was written for last weeks post, but somehow the submit button was not pressed .... We are running some new undergraduate projects this year that are [...]

Lightcurve of the week 403

2 October 2026|

This week we have a sneaky preview of one of the figures in our next paper - HOYSXII. The paper has now an almost complete draft which we will [...]

Lightcurve of the week 402

24 September 2026|

This week we show the light curve of the young star PR Ori, which is situated south of the Orion Nebula in the L1641N HOYS target region. This star [...]

Lightcurve of the week 401

17 September 2026|

It is "New Article Day" 🙂 We have written an article about HOYS for the Swiss Physical Society (SPS), which is their national professional association of Physicists coming from [...]

Lightcurve of the week 400

9 September 2026|

Welcome to the milestone 400th edition of the light curve of the week feature! This kind of snuck up on me without warning 🙂 I wonder if anyone has [...]

Lightcurve of the week 399

4 September 2026|

This week we show the light curve of the young star MO Mon. It is situated in a small dark globule right next to the Cone Nebula, which is [...]

Lightcurve of the week 398

26 August 2026|

This week we finally show a light curve again 🙂 The object is V1787Ori, just south or the Orion Nebula in the L1641N target field. In the image above [...]

Lightcurve of the week 397

19 August 2026|

What is your favourite HOYS target? Collectively it seems that the Orion Nebula (M42) is the most liked. At least we have the most images (almost 23800) for this [...]

Lightcurve of the week 396

12 August 2026|

It is New Paper Day! - AGAIN! 🙂 You can read the latest paper with HOYS involvement (accepted for publication this week) on this link. There is a link to [...]

Lightcurve of the week 395

7 August 2026|

HOYS stands for "Hunting Outbursting Young Stars" - and this week we actually show one 🙂 The above image is the R and I-band light curve of the young [...]

Lightcurve of the week 394

29 July 2026|

It is New Paper Day! You can read our latest paper (accepted for publication this week) on this link. There is a link to the full pdf on the [...]

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