Metadata

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Mon, 08/29/2016 - 16:38

I understand that there was a working group (perhaps it still exists) that discussed additions and/or changes to the metadata collected with electronic observations.  Were any conclusions reached?

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
No Workee Committee

It seems I was wrong about the existence of a committee, but perhaps that makes this an opportune venue to raise the question of metadata in the AID.  When I submit my BV PEP observations, I now include the following information in the comments field:

1) telescope used;  2) photometer used;  3) location;  4) transform coefficient;  5) extinction coefficient (single-channel photometrists use this);  6) second-order extinction coefficient for B band;  7) measured delta(B-V) of variable and comparison;  8) reduction program.

The great bulk of electronic observations don't have any of this information.  Exactly what parameters are important to record is a topic for debate, but it seems to me that our current metadata are inadequate.  

Tom