Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Wed, 02/17/2021 - 00:23
Hi, I know this isn't top of anyone's priority list - but could we have a consistent format for VS names in alert notices? Currently there are all sorts of mixtures of upper-lower case so in the same report we might get...
AB Aur
Ab aur
ab Aur
and so on, so I'm not sure which stars I can't observe because of clouds. It's actually quite off-putting! Should be easy to convert everything to upper case. PHP does this easily though I'm aware of the fact that PHP isn't being used here, at least I dont think it is.
Hi Mike,
Could you please give me an example of what you mean (especially an example of something like "ab aur")? We follow these standard rules for star names:
GCVS variables - all upper case in the first part, constellation abbreviation is mixed upper/lower case as appropriate: AB Aur, R CrB
Greek-letter variables - first part is all lower case, constellation abbreviation is mixed upper/lower case as appropriate: bet Per, alf CVn
Supernovae - for letter A-Z of a year it is upper case, for subsequent supernovae in the same year it is lower case (official CBAT format): SN 2021A, SN 2021gt
Other star names - upper/lower case as the catalogue dictates
We use all upper case letters when we give the name for submission to the AID in order to be consistent with the millions of observations there that were digitized via cards (on the cards all letters were upper case, no exceptions). If an observer prefers to use mixed case in submitting observations, that is all right; the all-upper case is preferred but not required.
The only variant we specifically ask observers not to use is all lower case, as in "ab aur", because that is not a correct form.
Good observing,
Elizabeth
Ah no, sorry - I'm not referring to the official way of designating variables, which of course we all know about. This is purely about how those correct formats are now appearing in Alert Notices. I took a .gif screenshot of today's AN but there seems to be no 'attach' facility in the brand new, all-singing, all-dancing website form, so I can't show it to you...
For instance in today's AN, we have the following incorrect (and jarring!) names of some stars...
AB Aur appears as: Ab aur (1st letter UC, 2nd letter LC, constellation name all LC). RW and HH Aur similarly, i.e., Rw, Hh. There are others too. Sometimes the constellation names are all UC, sometimes only the initial letter is. Worth pointing out that in the header where it says "the following stars..." we have the correct, double-capitals, format. I suppose that the aberrant forms may have been how the observers actually submitted them, but it should be a straightforward process to get them all into the correct format before populating the AN table.
Hi Mike,
Which Alert Notice are you referring to - what is the number? Also, you can email me your screenshot at eowaagen@aavso.org.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
Hi Mike,
I just realized you are talking about MyNewsFlash reports, not Alert Notices! Yes, in MNF reports I do see the variety of name formats you describe. Yes, they are the way the observer submitted the observation.
I'll mention this to my colleagues. (Of course, the ideal solution would be for everyone to use the correct official format, or at least all upper case!)
Good observing,
Elizabeth
Hi Michael and Elizabeth,
Maybe using two columns ("VSX name" and "reported name") would be more convenient.
Btw, in AAVSO Weekly Data Usage Reports the reported names are often even more garbled – an additional column (e.g. "VSX name") may be helpful here, too.
Regards,
Patrick