[vsnet-chat 4227] Re: re vs-chat 4203 [was GK Per etc.]

["John Isles" <jisles@voyager.net>]

John Greaves wrote:

> In the late sixites / early seventies one John Glasby was the head of the
> BAA VSS....

> Unfortunately, it turned out that most of his observations were spurious.
> Later investigation proved that, for example, observations of SS Cyg would
> be logged when said was below the horizon.  This was apparently eventually
> revealed by a BAA member and is covered in an article in the JBAA, but
> unfortunately I forget the reference.  [If somebody out there who knows
> more about this could give some better details I feel it would be
> informative and of interest.  With care the points can be made without
> making it personal, and they are important points.  Is John Isles still
out
> there in vsnet-chat land, and do you know anything more concrete on this
> topic?  This is in _no way_ an insinuation that Mr Isles was in any way
> involved in this matter, it's just that he was a lot closer to this event
> and organisation in time and space than I am/was, and has a good general
> knowledge of the amateur variable star obs field].

Yes, John Isles is alive and well out there in vsnet-chat land, and as
Glasby's successor in charge of the BAA Variable Star Section I was the
person mainly responsible for the repudiation of Glasby's work by the BAA,
and for doing the best I could to put things in order afterwards.  I don't
know if Glasby is still alive, so I shall simply direct you to the published
references which were approved by the lawyers and which are:

Journal of the BAA, 86 (4) 262, 1976 June: notice repudiating many of
Glasby's section reports.
Journal of the BAA, 86 (4) 335, 1976 June: letter signed by the President
concerning "errors" in Glasby's book "The Dwarf Novae"

> Anyway, the point is, what does one do with archival observations by
> Glasby?  He can't have invented all his observations.  So, do you pick and
> choose or just bin the lot?  And how do you discuss the topic without
> mentioning the person themself?  In fact, what did/does the BAA VSS do
with
> these observations?

In Glasby's case, once we realised what was going on, we disregarded the
lot.  They may remain in the archives on paper, but I hope none are in the
database.

Best wishes -- John Isles

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