[vsnet-chat 224] Re: Q:rule of nomenclature of new variables

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

     Kiyota-san asked about what criteria are used to permit a new variable
being assigned a variable-star designation by the Moscow group.
     I do not know the formal answer, but I believe they prefer to have
not merely an indication that a star is variable, but a lightcurve and also
to be able to say what type of variable the star is (Cepheid, eclipsing,
Mira, etc.).  For example, the Swedish amateur Lennart Dahlmark has
published some lists for new variables in the northern Milky Way.  In the
early lists, he gave only a magnitude range of the variation, and no
lightcurves.  Many of these stars are stil not designated.  In more recent
lists, he gives ranges and also periods, and has published lightcurves.
Nearly all these are now designated variable stars.
     The analogy might be better made to asteroids, wherein a mere
discovery of an asteroid is not enough to get the object numbered.  It must
be observed well enough over several apparitions to determine the orbit
very well before it is made  a "numbered" asteroid.
     Hope this helps.

\Brian

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