At 10:59 21/09/00 -0700, Brian Skiff wrote: > _My_opinion_, in general, is to avoid giving USNO-A names at all, simply >because of the confusion already existing, and because these names are >quite transient, and will soon be replaced by USNO-Bx.x, etc. In publication, >I would suggest noting a very faint star appearing only in that catalogue >with a phrase something like "identifiable with a USNO-A2.0 star located at..." >and not give the number at all. > >\Brian Yes I know, and yes I agree. But what yourself and Arne tend to forget is that these much maligned USNO Ax.0 "names" are plastered all over the place anyway, so I thought it'd be at least nice of folk to give a reference to where they've got them from, rather than leaving them as "magically" derived. I myself do not know how to calculate these USNO Ax.0 "names", and ironically have to use a DOS executable I downloaded from USNOFS when I need to check what object someone else is on about. There is a nice little DOS executable that generates these, written by a fellow called Henden. However, I've just done a quickie search on IBVS and found no use of USNO A "names", so maybes it is only a vsnet problem?????????????????? John