GCVS vs Variable Star Index

Affiliation
Svensk Amator Astronomisk Forening, variabelsektionen (Sweden) (SAAF)
Mon, 01/25/2021 - 12:17

When loading variables to an images there are two choices, GCVS and Variable Star Index. What are the differences between them or where do they got their data from? I think Variable Star Index got the stars directly from VSX but GCVS is not exactly the GCVS-catalogue.

I usually choose Variable Star Index, but as VSX grow, especially after all the 1000's of ZTF-variables that now are in VSX, I got a lot of stars that are of no interest of me with this method. In some fields you can get 20-50 variables that has to be removed. On the other hand when using GCVS you avoid the mass of ZTF-variables, but sometimes not all GCVS stars are loaded, or they got another names. For example V1015 Her got the name IRAS17506+3411 with GCVS but the correct name with Variable Star Index.

I think it would be a good thing if there was a choice to only loading variables that have a AUID or have observations or if the GCVS-choice could load all GCVS-stars with their correct names (perhaps together with NSV-stars).

Thomas Karlsson