[BAA Comets] Comet Photometry

[denis buczynski]

Hello all,
During a recent email exchange with Jon Shanklin ( our Comet Section director) and myself the 
following statement was made by Jon which may lead to our Section establishing a standardised method 
of obtaining and reporting CCD comet photometry. Here are Jon's comments:

One point here is that no BAA CCD observers have sent in any magnitude reports using the ICQ format 
for any comet.  This format is needed if I’m going to use the observations for analysis.  There is 
therefore nothing that I can use to compare the different styles of observation.  This is a topic we 
could raise on the email discussion forum.The AAVSO all sky survey of stars 10 – 15 magnitude should 
provide an ideal source for magnitude references, both visual and CCD of fainter comets.What I’d 
really like to see is a web interface for data submission so that all observers have to do is type 
in what they’ve observed (ideally with lots of defaults pre set) and the script does all the 
formatting.  I get the impression that few people use my admittedly rather dated input program for 
comet observations, but it does output the exact format to use without me having to edit.  I have a 
similar program for VS obs, and whilst the VS section has a spreadsheet, it is just that – it isn’t 
a data entry interface, which would need a visual basic front end.  My program minimises the number 
of key strokes, which is an important consideration.


So here we have the basis for a discussion on this forum, which I hope all interested parties will 
contribute to. Below are links some relevant pages, the first is a link to the ICQ photometry 
information page :
http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/cometphot.html

The second is a link the ICQ reporting format page

http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/ICQFormat.html

The third is the newly established International Comet Database (COBS) organised by the  Crni Vrh 
Observatory. Which states :

The new online Comet Observation Database (COBS) is unique service, offering comet observers to 
submit, display and analyse comet data in a single location. It is maintained by the Crni Vrh 
Observatory and is opened to comet observers worldwide. Registered observers may now submit the 
observations using a simple web-based form which will store their observations into an SQL database 
and display them in ICQ format. Furthermore the users will be able to create light-curve graphs of a 
selected comets and see all the observations. We encourage comet observers worldwide to submit their 
observations and contribute to the COBS database.

Observers are reminded that the ultimate address which is collecting and storing comet data is 
International Comet Quarterly.

http://www.observatorij.org/cobs/

At present it seems that although individual observers submit comet astrometry directly to the MPC 
and visual observations are collected by Jon/Guy at TA and subsequently submitted to the ICQ there 
is
                                                                     NO CCD PHOTOMETRY FROM THE BAA 
COMET SECTION BEING SUBMITTED TO THE ICQ (my emphasis in capitals)

Surely this is a situation we need to resolve for the long term. We need to decide upon standard 
procedures for our CCD observers to follow to obtain reliable comet photometry and to have the 
results submitted to the ICQ International Data Base.


My question to any resident experts is how do we go about this as a BAA Section?


Denis Buczynski