[vsnet-chat 3629] re GCVS/NSV bibliography

[crawl@zoom.co.uk]

Here's a randomly selected example of the format used in the CDS available
Bilbliographic Catalogue of Variable Stars part 1 [BCVS1], stored under
VI/67 at the CDS:

>ERI EI   3600153 1983 KENNEDY*MK CLASSIFICATION CATALOGUE*
>ERI EI   3600153 1985 MUTEL,LESTRADE*AJ*90,493
>ERI EI   3600153 1986 FEKEL ET AL.*APJ SUPPL*60,551
>ERI EI   3600153 1986 LIU,TAN*ACTA APH SINICA*6,132
>ERI EI   3600153 1986 TAN,LIU*ACTA ASTR SINICA*27,130
>ERI EI   3600153 1987 BALONA*SOUTH AFRICA CIRC*11,1
>ERI EI   3600153 1987 HUISONG,XUEFU*ASTR APH*172,74
>ERI EI   3600153 1987 WANG ET AL.*ACTA APH SINICA*7,255
>ERI EK   3600154 1987 BALONA*SOUTH AFRICA CIRC*11,1
>ERI ER   3600161 1958 KWEE*BAN*14,131
>ERI ER   3600161 1965 CESTER*ZFA*62,191=TRIESTE PUBBL 332
>ERI ER   3600161 1976 B.B.S.A.G.*BBSAG BULL*27

The "36nnnnn" number is an internal constellation and star identifier
number which is not strictly necessary, so otherwise this list doesn't look
that much different from the example given in chat 3626 for the NSV data.

Part II is much the same, though it includes some end of line codes to give
clues as to the content of the article, which isn't really relevant in the
GCVS/NVS case, cos we can assume they are "discovery" references!

The references are usually expanded out in a separate references' file,
here's a random cut and past for the BCVS1:

>ARMAGH CONTR       Contributions from the Armagh Observatory
>ARMAGH LEAFLET     Armagh Observatory - Leaflet
>ARTHUR J DYER REPR Vanderbilt University, The Arthur J. Dyer Observatory,
>                   Nashville, Tennessee - Reprint Series
>AS AUSTRALIA PROC  Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia
>AS CHINESE CIRC    Astronomical Circular (of the Chinese Astr. Soc.)
>AS INDIA BULL      Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India
>AS INDIA MEM       Memoirs of the Astronomical Society of India
>

again, nothing really fancy here.


NOW, as to whether an online available flat ascii GCVS/NSV bibliography
would be useful, well let's take some examples over the past month...

About 3 or 4 times Haseda has found potentially new variables on patrol
images.  Kato has forwarded details to vsnet-newvar, and in about 3
instances noted that a nearby NSV star ought to be double checked to see if
it is the same.

Greaves has looked up the NSV reference ID and using the year part and a
bit of guess work has tried to find a suitable paper via an abstracts
search at the ADS.  This can involve ploughing through quite a few papers
online.  It works sometimes, but not everything is at the ADS, and even if
it is part of the abstract service, it is not guaranteed that the full
article is available.

So, Greaves has sometimes sent out requests to vsnet-chat asking hardcopy
owners of the NSV to provide the full reference.  Isles and/or Skiff have
on these occasions kindly and promptly done so, again via vsnet-chat.

Then Greaves has either looked this up and reported back to newvar and/or
chat, or made a note to chat that the paper doesn't help or whatever etc.
Sometimes Skiff also noted further points re availability/provenance of the
_original_ pre-publication data.

Obviously any direct source to these references would have cut out a fair
amount of the traffic to chat at least, and would be a vast improvement in
the practical sense in general, and in the specific vsnet sense with
respect to those who already feel they get too much mail anyway...

So, yes an electronic form of GCVS/NSV bibliography would be very useful
indeed!  If it wasn't for the feedback route of vsnet-chat, I personally
would have no other way at all of accessing this information.

[SIMBAD is actually not very good on NSV catalogues, and is a few Name
Lists light of a GCVS]

Thanks

John

John Greaves
UK

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