[vsnet-alert 10335] re possble nova in Aquila

[bydra at Safe-mail.net]

I was going to point out that it's always good to use a full VizieR search for stuff like this, as the NSVS red variables paper comes up a doddle on a simple radius search for this object, noting it specifically being in that paper, but all of a sudden VizieR has gone away and they seem to be updating it, and changing url core domain, so I can't give a link at the moment.

Dr Clay, I know you use GUIDE : some of my TDFs I've put on Guide user list in the past allow you to link out to VizieR searches for such stuff, and for some long time Guide has had the ability to plot up IRAS data, as a standard thing Bill Gray put into it.  This enables unknown Miras to be caught fairly quickly, though astrometric accuracy of IRAS isn't great.  The 
A SIMBAD websearch should give the IRAS hook too, as SIMBAD has most of IRAS in it, if not all, too, this too is outlinked via USNO B1.0 tdf, but not the Guide inbuilt one.  USNO B1.0 tdf does this action especially to a one arcminute search, amongst other outlinkages.


Existence in the MSX6C catalogue, usually noted via VizieR, which again this object also has, is another clue, with some better astrometric accuracy for that system, albeit still a few arcsecs in error box.

But if you want the most up to date stuff anywhere on variables you have to do a tandem approach, you search the GCVS website for their iii.dat file

http://www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs/iii/

which is updated every month or so (though I'm not sure if their GCVS search engine keeps up with it real time), whereas the VizieR copy and SIMBAD copy of GCVS are a bit old in the tooth, and, you search VizieR because the VizieR team in the past year or two have been pretty quick to get all the variable star catalogues coming out in papers not just into the CDS ftp sites but actually into the VizieR search engine itself.  Except for the GCVS caveat noted VizieR is now the demonstrably premier variable star catalogue repository.

For individual objects, such as things in IBVS and PZP or even OEJV, SIMBAD is the route, as this is the most uptodate reservoir on said, as they get into ADS in time, and into SIMBAD, with crosslinkages throughout, and plus links back to the source papers.

A guy called Geert Hoogeven tends to collect these himself and make lists of them on his webpage

http://www.varstar.nl/newvariableslist.htm

but as the last update he seems to have is last January, SIMBAD will be superior.

Some few people report their own discoveries to the AAVSO VSX system, so you'll find a coupla thousand or so stars there that might not appear anywhwere else if their discoverers have not published a paper on them.  Some folk like Patrick Wils will manually bung in any new CVs or such like stuff that crop up on lists like this one or CVnet.

Politicking aside, in firm practice for new catalogues of variable stars and IBVS/PZP/OEJV new variables, you need SIMBAD and VIZIER, VSX has falling way behind, and unfortunately doesn't give a readily accessible log history of when it last had catalogues imported.

Name List 79 is apparently finished, just awaiting niceties of extra bits or something, that will have to be allowed for too in time, once published, but subsumation into iii.dat should follow in due course, if the precedent of what occured after Name List 78 is any indication.

Checking for known variability in terms of literature and lists is a seriously nontrivial matter.  Actually, it's a pain in the arse.  A lot of folk don't bother, both professionals and amateur, so don't worry if you've had a bit of a miss this time around.  You'll be amazed at where novae can be found when they do crop up.

Cheers

John

John Greaves