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Don't damn the digits. Sometimes the digits are there for a purpose. For example, you need more digits to study the error. It is a pain to put them in and out of the software. One might make a mistake. An example of this is the extra ditits in the position reported in the tass pipeline. I asked Michael to put thse in place so that I could study the twin problem. If errors are reported, then use them and ignore the digits. Tom Droege Arne Henden wrote: (snip) >> Another source of problems I've noticed is that folks are believing >> without question whatever numbers come out from a piece of commercial >> software. (It's the "it comes from a computer, it must be right" >> syndrome.) >> Uncertainties seem to be underestimated by factors of several as >> well. You can >> test the software of course by measuring known constant standard >> stars and >> seeing how close you get to "truth", and work on figuring out why >> errors occur---is it the software or your observing? By doing such >> tests on many >> nights (every night you observe), you'll get a feeling for what your >> errors >> really are, and learn a lot in the process. > > Yup. The one that really bugs me as a scientist is reporting > magnitudes and > times to vast numbers of "significant" digits. That is what comes out of > the software, so it must be correct! > Arne > > _______________________________________________ > Aavso-discussion mailing list > Aavso-discussion@aavso.org > http://vsnet.aavso.org/mailman/listinfo/aavso-discussion >
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