[vsnet-chat 2808] MVS chart identifications

[Brian Skiff <bas@lowell.edu>]

     A batch of reports by Timo Kinnunen and myself containing accurate
positions and identifications for variables has been published by the IBVS.
These are the first of what will be a series of between 15 and 20 such lists
giving results for some 2500 variables appearing on the Sonneberg MVS series
of charts published in the late 1950s by Hoffmeister.  About three-quarters of
the stars still had no accurate positions in the GCVS v4.1 or the literature
generally.  Most of the work has already been distributed by Timo via the VSNET
'vsnet-id' list in early 1999.  We have improved the coordinates by using the
Tycho-2/GSC-ACT/USNO-A2.0 hierarchy and added relevant identifications from
SIMBAD as available; I have done some work on difficult cases with various
resources not available to Timo.  I also prepared the sometimes
typographically-exhilarating LaTeX files for publication.
     The lists are freely available in various formats from the IBVS Web site
starting at:  http://vsnet.konkoly.hu/IBVS/4801.html, where our new items are
IBVS 4861, 4862, 4863, and 4868.  The intervening numbers have not been
posted yet, which includes two of ours.  I note that the new html versions of
the reports have hyperlinked references.
     I would have embarked on working through these charts myself eventually,
and am pleased to commend Timo not only for doing the work but doing it so
carefully.  There have been many quite difficult cases I checked where he has
made exactly the correct ID.  The SIMBAD searches have also provided a bunch
of useful name links, and has uncovered a number of interesting errors in the
GCVS and SIMBAD.

     I might mention that I have submitted to the IBVS several photometric
sequences for stars done at the request of Charles Scovil for AAVSO charts.
About 70 of these were also sent out via VSNET four to five years ago.  Recent
reconsideration suggests that most of them retain their value even in the
post-Tycho-2 era (but maybe not much longer!).  About 20 of these sequences
were published some time ago, and there are about another 30 useful fields
to come yet.

\Brian

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