Having had the pleasure of re-doing my sequences I've run into the following problem. I always select my variables from the VSX list. There are often more variables than the one I expected (ie, my target star). I say, what the hey, why not include them in my sequence as I expect to re-visit the field often and measuring them is automatic. But when I try to upload the AAVSO report file via WebObs I get the message that many of them are not recognized and WebObs won't accept any of the file. This means deleting the record in that batch, changing the sequence to ignore the "variables" or reporting the problem to HQ - all time consuming. Can't the problem be fixed elsewhere? How does VPHOT find these things and VSX doesn't know about them?
Jim Roe [ROE]
Jim: Can you give some specific examples of targets where this occurred? Do you use both VSX and GCVS to find variables?
Some stars in VSX do not have auid, e.g, some ROTSE stars. I suspect one issue is that the "lists" are maintained by humans and "typical human frailty" creates ambiguities? Aaron or other VSX guru may have a better answer!
Yes the problem stars without auid.
I'll publish a fix shortly that gives you a warning if a star does not have auid (meaning you can't submit observations of that star to AAVSO).
Geir
I'm a VSX moderator and even I run into this problem, so I know how frustrating it can be. I have one star, V735 Sgr, that has literally 100+ "other" variables in the FOV. Assigning AUIDs to all of them, one at a time, was quite a painful chore.
Even after Geir develops a way to warn you, you will still need to tell the VSX team which stars need AUIDs assigned to them, so we can double check the entry in VSX to confirm variablilty, identification, coordinates, etc.
Until I can tell you a better way, send me your requests via email <mikesimonsen@aavso.org> and I will assign an AUID to your stars as quickly as I can.
Mike Simonsen SXN
AAVSO
FYI, I just published the warning feature. When you import data from VSX (and only then) you will see a red dot next to the star name, and some text explaining the problem, if that star does not have auid.
Geir