Standardizing observation requests in Alert notices

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thu, 11/10/2022 - 20:41

I've recently been looking to the Alert Notices for interesting light curve targets for our group to observe. (Aka Stars of recent interest in the monthly communications email.) Alas finding the notices on the website is very difficult and I have to resort to the email and semi-randomly click on generic star names to get some kind of idea of what they're about. Alert notice information should be easily accessible from the website and the notice summary should be organized in a more informative manner that includes, for single targets at minimum, the type of variable and the RA and Dec in addition to the name.

My first go was last month when I picked one of the targets from #789 and this month I've put in a request to observe a target from #377. Information in these notices is an inconsistent format and possibly scattered about other notices, papers, cliques and who knows what. As a random observer, I'd like to see each notice containing information in a consistent table format that includes the magnitude range, desired filters, minimum cadence, minimum SNR, and expected period (if applicable).

The Swarthmore site is a good example how the random observer can find exoplanet targets to observe. Something somewhat similar should be done for "stars of recent interest".

Jesse

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
That's it!

It looks familiar too and I think I'd just forgotten about it. Perhaps each Alert might include a note to check the target tool for more information. I also just noticed the Target Tool was missing targets (up tonight) from Alert 377. Thanks, Jesse