Recently joined member - Observer Codes Question

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thu, 03/23/2023 - 10:44

Hi there,

My name is Ian Sharp and I have recently joined as a paid-up member of the AAVSO. I have a question regarding membership IDs.

When I registered I was assigned an Observer Code of SIDB. However, I have had quite a few photometric observations added to the AAVSO automatically over the past couple of years from the BAA database. I had not realised this and all of these BAA entries are under the code of SHPI.

Going forward, I am intending to upload my observations directly to both the BAA and the AAVSO (using the AAVSO Extended file format).

I just wondered what I should do? Can anyone re-assign my code?

Many thanks

Ian.

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Observer codes answer

Hi Ian,

Welcome to the AAVSO membership! We appreciate your support and hope you will enjoy the benefits of membership. Thank you for asking about your observer codes. I deleted your second AAVSO observer code (SIDB) and connected your AAVSO web account to the observer code you already had (SHPI). Please submit your observations to the AAVSO International Database using SHPI.

It's fine for you to submit your observations to both the BAA and the AAVSO. For the BAA, please use your BAA observer code, and for the AAVSO, use SHPI. When the BAA sends its database updates to the AAVSO for addition to the AID, which it does a few times per year, we screen for duplicate observations. For each observer, we connect the BAA code with the AAVSO code. As long as what you submit to both places is essentially the same (except for observer code), the BAA-submitted observations will be screened out.

Best regards, and Good observing,

Elizabeth Waagen, AAVSO HQ