Guiding principles for Citizen observatories

This document presents ten foundational principles for developing citizen observatories, drawing from practical experience with the MINKA citizen observatory and Cos4Cloud project, combined with established participatory science frameworks. Building on the ECSA citizen science principles, these guiding principles offer aspirational goals for creating sustainable, impactful citizen observatories that integrate technology, communities, standards, and processes. The principles are shared as draft work to facilitate ongoing development and refinement within the participatory and citizen science community.