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Re: [AAVSO-DIS] Assignment of under observed stars Dear Stan, > I'm a little uneasy about the way amateur astronomy is headed at the moment. > There seems to be a great desire to find new things - minor planets, > supernovae and new variables - but little desire in some cases to do > anything more than find these objects. I rather liked it in the days when > not only did you find a new object, but then felt responsible to investigate > it in as much depth as you could manage. Your comment just clearly illustrates my thoughts, too. Ar least in our country, there is a concept of a "new object hunter", and some people indeed call themselves with this title in popular astronomy magazines. My feeling is that many of these "new object hunters" have little interest in finding out the nature of their newly discovered objects. What matters more is whether the object is called "NOVA" "SUPERNOVA" etc. on IAUCs, or when these discovery announcements are issued. Once the object has given a "NOVA" designation, they seem to feel that their work is complete. I remember there was a comment on the appoaching Comet Hale-Bopp several years ago, in which a comet hunter expressed that he is not interested in already discovered comets. Considering the rarity of Hale-Bopp-class comets, his comment must have been true for any class of "known" comets. One of my concerns is that I have too frequently seen amateur astronomers, who originally aimed to investigate it in as much depth as they could manage, feeling happy with newly acquired data and result, someday turned to a specialized way to a "new object hunter" or its variety. I even feel there must be an external force to selectively turn renowned observers to head toward a specialized way. Or would it be a natural consequence of human genes? Regards, Taichi Kato
Return to the Powerful Daisaku Nogami
vsnet-adm@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
