[Aavso-photometry] Color Photometry

[Jeff Hopkins]

Hello Chuck,

While I understand many astronomers make use of the AAVSO data, I 
have had bad experience with it. My bad experiences have been both in 
trying to submit large amounts of UBVJH data and in requesting data.

I have been trying since October 2006 to see some epsilon Aurigae 
data that was submitted to the AAVSO. I recheck monthly and there is 
always an excuse. I indicated I would be happy with the raw data, but 
no go. This was important as I am preparing a paper for presentation 
and publication at the SAS meeting in May and the deadline is about 
closed so I won't be referencing the AAVSO data.

As for submitting data, the format for submitting data is not 
conducive of the form I have the data in. Except for time series 
projects I use one UT date and HJD for three filters (UBV) and 
specify the magnitude to 3 place, # of measurements, standard 
deviations  (data spread of three sets) and air mass. I have similar 
data for JH bands and also BVRI bands. It appears it would take a 
great effort to put it in the accepted format. I even wrote a 
database program to reformat it for the AAVSO format, but gave up.

As for "Who will see it in the future?," projects I work on end up in 
published papers or given as presentations. Also, I submit projects 
for IBVS publication of the data. You can also make a web page and 
publish things yourself.

Folks doing serious photometry put a great deal of effort into it and 
need to think where they can best apply the efforts and what they 
want from them. When asked, I always suggest picking a few 
interesting projects, learn all you can about them, research other 
data and then make your own observations. There is a learning curve 
with each project. Each star is different. Sometimes projects go bust 
and don;t produce anything of interest. Other times there are some 
wonderful surprises.

Jeff

At 09:10 -0700 03/27/2007, Chuck Pullen wrote:
>Stan - while I fully give you that it is your data to send to
>whomever you want, who sees your data now if it isn't sent to an
>archive?  Who will see it in the future?
>
>I understand your concern, but I doubt anyone does much science with
>the presentations in the Quick View or the light curve generator.
>Anyone who is going to do much will ask for all the data on a given
>object from JD X to JD Y.  Your BVRI data will be there, and obvious
>to them, if that is what they are looking for.
>
>So while our advertising isn't so hot, I wouldn't use that as a
>reason for not contributing to the Int. Data Base.
>
>Chuck Pullen

-- 
Jeff Hopkins
HPO SOFT
Counting Photons
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