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We've been over a lot of this previously here and elsewhere...
>> Brian's message implied a heirarchy like:
>>
>> 1. HD
>> 2. BD
>> 3. GCVS
>>
>> Where would we go next? In my mind it would go more like:
>>
>> 1. GCVS
>> 2. HD
>> 3. BD
>> 4. GSC
>> 5. USNO-A2.0
When you're dealing strictly with _known_ variable stars, using the
GCVS name is an obvious choice. The problem arising from ASAS, TASS, etc.
is that although newly-found to be variable, the stars involved do not
have GCVS designations and won't for quite awhile. Thus I argue in such
instances that if a name of some sort is needed at all, one should use
a hierarchy based roughly on historical precedence and current use:
HD
BD/CD/CPD
AGK
GSC
"other" such as IRAS, LS, DO, etc.
I would recommend that USNO-Ax.x names be avoided, especially now that
the A series has been superceded by USNO-B1.0. In general, however,
I woudl recommend avoiding using any name at all for faint stars.
The reason is that the catalogue situation for faint stars (beyond the
GSC limit) is very much in a state of change and will be some several
years to come. The "faint" catalogues are becoming obsolete on the
timescale of a couple years, so you don't want to tie yourself very
closely to any of them. And as "lolife" Mike has noted, the designations
are cumbersome in USNO etc. Since it's gotta be cumbersome, why can't
the name---if you insist on having one---be the J2000 coordinates at (say)
1-arcsec precision, e.g. "J123456.7-123456".
Once UCAC is in its final form, we might want to use those numbers
for stars fainter than the GSC; 2MASS might get a little fainter (and
much fainter for red/reddened stars); downstream there'll probably be
a lot of pressure to use Sloan designations for very-faint stars and
galaxies.
Essentially all the ASAS and TASS stars will appear in one of the
regular catalogues noted above (GSC or brighter), so there's little need
for anything beyond the classic catalogues for these telephoto-based
surveys.
\Brian
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