[BAA Comets] Comet Photometry

[Shanklin, Jonathan D.]

The MPC format is for reporting astrometry, and the magnitudes reported there are approximate with no metadata.  If you report photometry different information is required.  As an analogy you wouldn't report the position of a new variable star in the same format that you submitted a magnitude estimate.

I agree it would be helpful to have only one format for reporting visual observations, and would be quite happy if only the ICQ format was used (Roger didn't mention many of the other formats - eg Morris, CBAT etc).  The BAA format is only marginally different to the ICQ one, but many reports received don't quite match either format and so need a lot of editing.  A decent web interface that allows quick and simple input and thence transmission to the Director would be a great help.

Regards, Jon

Director Comet Section, British Astronomical Association
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds


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