I would like to ask for the possibility to upload in SkySafari the International Variable Star Index by AAVSO. I understand from the Forum that this idea was considered many years ago but it seemed as something for specialists. It might be, but I would like to support the idea for new reasons: astronomy clubs are often involved in citizen science and the search for variable stars with AAVSO is very interesting because it gives to the associations the opportunity to name their discoveries. If the named stars in the VSX database were searchable by Sky Safari, these associations would promote Sky Safari to their members.
It is an official scientific catalogue; new variable stars with magnitudes up to 8 are weekly added, so this stars are clearly visible in any small telescope. The catalogue is periodically updated and publicly accessible also on the Vizier portal with the code B/vsx/vsx (https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/B/vsx). Valuable infos are the name of the star assigned by AAVSO, the RA and DEC in J2000 format, the Variability type, max magnitude, magnitude passband, period and spectral type. Thank you!
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9 comments
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Keiron Smith Matteo,
Why can't this be an observing list?
Thanks!
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Matteo Grassi It might be. But is it possible to upload a Observing list from a txt file or similar format? How can I find the procedure to try it?
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Matteo Grassi No, it looks impossible to make an observing list for this purpose, unless there are some instructions on how to make the raw skyfile file on a laptop.
From the App, even with SkySafari pro and the Gaia Star database dowloaded, the stars cannot be always found. Even if found, they can't be named according to the naming in the International Variable Stars index of AAVSO and no attribute like color or variability type can be modified
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bruce lamoreaux Matteo,
It looks like the best place to start is to make a variable star list from - Search - Best Variable Stars - Create Observation List. Once that list is created it can be added to. Since there are so many Long Period variables that is going to be a large list. Probably too large. Maybe stay with the variable stars of bright magnitude. Then create a list for Short Period Pulse, Cataclysmic and Eclipsing.Bruce
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bruce lamoreaux Matteo,
Here is a better way.
Go to - Observing Planner - select variable stars - set limit magnitude to 2 - 18 and do not limit constellations. You will create a list from there.
I got a list of 10,000 variable stars that could be made into an observing list.
That would keep one busy for a few nights.Bruce
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Matteo Grassi Thank you Bruce, but unfortunately it is not what I need. As I wrote, the AAVSO VSX database contains variable stars discovered in decades by amaeteur astronomers and officially approved by AAVSO with specific common names. E.g., there are about 50 stars that my club discovered and named in the years, or stars from other teams of citizen scientists I am in contact with. Those are the stars I would like to share in an observing list, with their AAVSO index name, not with the fuzzy 12 digit number given by the Gaia ID which is the only avaiable in Sky Safari for Observing lists. A customizable Common Name might help, but it is not in the features, as far as I know
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bruce lamoreaux Matteo,
Perhaps you could create your list in .txt or other format and convert it to .skylist and import. Here is a link to another conversation about that topic.
https://support.simulationcurriculum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360036119694-Is-There-A-Way-To-Automate-The-Conversion-Between-CSV-And-Skylist-File-Formats-Answer-Use-Another-Program-To-Convert-Bruce
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bruce lamoreaux Matteo,
I just tried an experiment that may help. I exported an observing list from SS as a .skylist. Then I opened the .skylist with notepad and changed the CommonName=value to my name. Then saved the file with ctrl s. Emailed the list as an attachement and opened the attachment in SS on my iPad. The Observing list appears with the change I made. So I would think that you could build the VS observing list to suit what every name you wanted to give the star.
Now that would be useful to your club only for the 50 or so stars you are referring to. I would like to see what stars these are that have a different name than the catalog used by SkySafari so Include me in the email when you get the list done.
Bruce
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Matteo Grassi Bruce,
thank you very much for your help, but it does not seem to work for me.
When I create an observing list with a set of stars and I change the CommonName in the file I have two results, both wrong. If the CommonName is a standard name already kown by Sky Safari, the item in the list will bring me to that object, not to the one in the original list. If it is unknown it will give an error [Unrecognezed] in the list.
As an example I created a list with two stars identified with their Gaia ID because no other ID is given in SkySafari databases.
GAIA 3152950094882875392
GAIA 3152954428509153152
This list works. But the stars are named only with their GAIA ID. On the AAVSO VSX database those two stars have specific names referring to the team that discovered their variability.
So I download the list and I rename the first star with CommonName = MyName and the second, just for test, with CommonName = La Superba
I leave all the other data unchanged, including the ObjectID and CatalogNumber created by Sky Safari. I send it by mail to my Ipad or Iphone.
When I open the modified observing list, I cannot tap on the first star and an orange message appears: [Unrecognized] MyName. If I tap on the second one, Sky Safari doesn't consider the Gaia ID and ObjectID in the list and brings me to Y Canum Venaticorum, also known as La Superba. So, as far as I understand, SkySafari Pro re-installed today can resolve only common names that he already has in its internal database.
I would send you my skylist list by mail, but I can't find your mail in this site or community.
Bests
Matteo
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