  At the Venezuela National Astronomical Observatory we are carrying out
variability surveys spanning many hundreds of square degrees near the celestial
equator, using an 8k x 8k CCD Mosaic Camera optimized for drift-scanning on a
1m Schmidt telescope. Among the initial efforts was a project to obtain the
first moderately deep, homogeneous sample of young stars over an area of
~180sqr.deg. encompassing the entire Orion OB1 association, one of the nearest
and most active regions of star formation. The results show that variability is
a powerful technique to identify pre-main sequence populations, specially in
sparse areas devoid of gas and dust. We are currently developing a massive
database, equipped with web-based data mining tools, that will make our data
and results available to the astronomical community.
