VSS FAQ?

Forums Variable Stars VSS FAQ? VSS FAQ?

#580210
Andy Wilson
Keymaster

Hi Paul,

The telescope type is in the visual observation spreadsheet. This is quite old, dating back to the submission format for the old text file database that was created in the 1990’s when database field size mattered. Today this is not so much of a problem, but I’ve not bothered changing the spreadsheet since it is what the VSS observers are used to.

In the visual spreadsheet there is a comment if you hover your mouse of the ‘Type’ field on the ‘Observer Details’ tab. R is for reflector and G is for refractor (Glass). In fact this does not really matter and you could type ‘refractor’, ‘reflector’, ‘Meade 8’, ‘C11’, etc. The only limit on the visual spreadsheet is the total length of all the instruments must not exceed 255 characters. The database upload process checks this and will tell you if this limit is exceeded.

In the photometry spreadsheet it is the ‘Telescope Short Description’ on the ‘ObsvEqmt’ sheet that matters. This does not actually need to be very short as the description can be up to 255 characters, though if anyone uses this much text I think they are being too descriptive 😉 Examples are:

  • RC 0.6m f/8
  • Meade 14 LX200R on AP1200

For collaborative efforts, it is best to setup an observer code to cover all the collaborators and a special login.

Cheers,

Andy