(cba:news) notes from cba hilo

[Jonathan Kemp]

Hi CBAers,                                                     31 May 2001

I just wanted to pass along some notes on data submission and a few other
topics, especially for some of our newer members.

We generally prefer data in a two-column (julian date vs var-comp delta
mag) format.  Occasionally, CBAers will contribute a third column such as
airmass or check-comp delta mag, which is occasionally helpful.  Usually,
most other columns aren't overwhelmingly useful and, given our familiarity
with the stars and our receipt of data from various stations with
different instrument compliments, we are able to evaluate things such as
noise level and measurement error without a slew of extra columns devoted
to all the field stars or a set of error bar measurements.  And, when
dealing with various sorts of data, the simplicity makes our lives easier!

For those wondering about heliocentric corrections, we slightly prefer to
add them in ourselves.  However, most important is that you are consistent
and that submissions to the data archive are labeled as JD (or as HJD, in
those rare cases).  And, we generally adhere to specifying the *middle* of
the integration in our timings.

Also, for those of you unaware, we highly recommend sending data directly
to the data archive (data at cbastro.org).  The advantages of this
include the file getting automatically archived and sorted before being
forward on to Joe and I, and, when it comes time to compiling observing
logs and checking to make sure we have all data sets, this is quite
useful.  [If you have data files you've already submitted to Joe and would
like to send them to the archive, please send them to
data-old at cbastro.org.]

More information on data format and submission can be found at
https://cbastro.org/data/.  And, to continually keep track of
data sets submitted to the archive and provide recognition to those who
contribute, the listing of data sets submitted to the archive is posted
monthly at https://cbastro.org/archive/.

At some point in the near future, I would like to start including reviews
of some sort on our web site.  These might include review of those pieces
of reduction software, types of CCD imagers, or models of telescopes that
are either common or useful to members of the CBA.  If you consider
yourself fairly familiar with something on which you would like to
contribute a short piece, please let us know!

For those who might have missed it, the Catalog and Atlas of CVs is now
online at http://icarus.stsci.edu/~downes/cvcat/.  This is the one by
Downs et al. that had several hardcopy iterations and now lives in
cyberspace with frequent updates.

Also, we will soon be revising the network pages to include some of our
newer members.  If you haven't noticed the link before, please feel free
to visit https://cbastro.org/forms/station.html to let us know
more about your station and setup.  You can also find this link at the
bottom of every network page.  If you've submitted before and merely need
to update an entry or two, you needn't worry about the other fields.  
And, as we hope to issue a new CBA newsletter following my upcoming New
York visit, please let us know if we don't have your postal address or if
your postal address that we have has changed.

Lastly, I just wanted to let you know that we have essentially fully
phased out the last remnants of our operation on the old cbastro.org
server, so please be sure to use web and e-mail addresses for
cbastro.org!

Anyway, that's about all from CBA Hilo.  I'll be in New York in a few
weeks to meet with Joe about various CBA issues.  And, oh yeah, I got
married a fortnight ago!  :-)

Jonathan
CBA Hilo