[BAA Comets] Reporting Formats

[Guy Hurst]

Dear Roger,

On the face of it that does seem an obvious improvement and is new to this
list. However it has been discussed so many times over the years and has
produced endless debates which pre-date this discussion group by years. It
is worth adding that I have received contributions in the past in at least
TEN different formats as some countries do not adopt of the three mentioned.

 

TA records go back a long way in the format used in the magazine and various
organisations (other than the BAA) ask for our files from time to time. It
is essentially a simplified listing which allows it to appear in the format
used by 'The Astronomer' for the whole publication and conserves space,
always at a premium. 

 

Certainly discussions many years ago with ICQ staff showed it was
impractical to include all their detail in the TA listing and extracted
parts would not be feasible in the mere FOUR days between the deadline and
sending it to the printers.    

 

Finally we have at several times in the past contacted our comet
contributors for their opinions and their majority views were it should
remain unchanged except that we include narrative with the numerical listing
to describe features which could not be catered for in the computer listing.

 

Having discussed this with groups and TA subscribers in the past and with
Jonathan able to adapt the TA files to his BAA Computer database for many
years I do not wish to change it as far as TA is concerned.

 

Kind regards,

Guy

TA Editor

BAA Comet Section Deputy Director

 

Message: 1

Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 11:39:15 +0100

From: "Roger Dymock" <roger.dymock at ntlworld.com>

Subject: [BAA Comets] Reporting formats

To: <comets-disc at britastro.org>

Message-ID: <4C09EDE3392A4B2A83428E4DB8960FD4 at atlantis>

Content-Type: text/plain;              charset="us-ascii"

 

Why do we have three different formats for reporting visual observations
i.e. TA, BAA and ICQ? Wouldn't it be less confusing to have just one?

 

Regards

 

Roger Dymock

 

 

_________________________________________________________

Guy M Hurst, 16 Westminster Close, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP, England

Tel/Fax (01256) 471074                                    Internet:
guy at tahq.demon.co.uk

Mobile: (07905) 332226             Personal WWW: http://www.guyhurst.co.uk

Editor of The Astronomer
http://www.theastronomer.org

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