[vsnet-chat 112] V893 Sco etc

[bas@lowell.Lowell.Edu (Brian Skiff)]

     Usually the Moscow variable-star catalogue folks are fairly conservative
in assigning designations only when a light curve (or explicit period) and a
type of variation for a new variable is given in publication.  Clearly they
have not been so picky about positions, and thousands of them in the GCVS4 are
in error by several arcminutes, even in the absence of gross errors caused by
typos.  In the Milky Way, this means such variables are in effect lost without
first recovering them by reference to the source charts---which are often
published in obscure journals without wide circulation.  You can imagine the
state of things if, for instance, the Minor Planet Center were to still accept
approximate positions for asteroids!  The GCVS compilers are aware of this
problem and are working to rectify it.
     As Kato-san has shown, the notices containing V893 Sco and others in the
region contain many large errors and needs to be gone over thoroughly to
recover the stars for further observation.
     This topic gives me a chance to plug a series of "Information Bulletin
on Variable Stars" (IBVS) notes I've submitted giving (you guessed it) precise
positions and identifications for variable stars.  Three are published (IBVS
issues 4417, 4431, and 4433), comprising some 400 variables, and should be
coming out on paper with the next batch.  You can read them already at the
IBVS Web site (http://ogyalla.konkoly.hu).  Gareth Williams and I will be
shortly submitting a set of four reports with precise positions and IDs for the
220 variables discovered by the amateur observer Lennart Dahlmark.  Others are
on the way. 
     Perhaps we can solve the puzzles for the Satyvaldijev variables and
submit a similar note for the IBVS.

\Brian Skiff  (bas@lowell.edu)

VSNET Home Page

Return to Daisaku Nogami

---

vsnet-adm@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp