[Aavso-photometry] [AAVSO-DIS] New AAVSO submission formats and changes

[arne]

Michael Poxon wrote:
> Just a question about stars that have not been given a GCVS name (like for 
> instance MISV1147 not so long ago, or the new CVs in Canis Minoris (what??) 
> and Hydra. How does one put these objects into the "Star" field of PCObs, 
> since they aren't in the GCVS at all? That's assuming that you can get PCObs 
> to work in the first place, of course...

I did not see anyone reply to this, so just to close the loop, I will. :-)

As mentioned on the discussion group, we expanded the number of stars
in our "validation" file to include all of the GCVS.  This is a subseet
of all stars available through VSX, but the problem with VSX is that
a star may have multiple records, if it was imported from several catalogs
that did not properly cross-reference.  As the AAVSO International Database
(AID) requires a unique ID (the AUID) for each star, we could not just
add the AUID to every record in VSX and then permit data entry based on
that - some stars would have multiple AUIDs.  So we took the first baby
step of at least expanding to the GCVS.  The second baby step is that
we allow observers to request that a specific VSX star be added to the
validation file - this is something that many HQ staff folks can do,
so it happens quickly.  You can therefore add other known variable
stars to our list fairly conveniently.  The final step is to get volunteers
to clean up VSX, so that all records for a given star are linked together
and only one AUID is given per star.  Then we can really allow entry of
virtually every known variable.

Stars like MISV1147 and the CMa CV may already be on our list based on
other requests - if so, they will be there under their VSX name.  If
not, you can ask that they be included.

The one exception are NSV stars.  For these, we require additional information
such as a GSC or UCAC ID, so that we can be sure of which star you are
observing.  The NSV coordinates are typically poor, and just picking the
star closest to those coordinates is not sufficient.

Finally, I don't use PCObs, and so I can't say how it handles these new
names - that is a question you should pose to Len Abbey if you are still
having problems.
Arne