re OBJECT keyword

[Lucio Chiappetti]

On 8 Jun 1998, Malcolm Currie wrote:

> Helene Dickel <lanie at astro.uiuc.edu> writes:  

> Yes it is frustrating to have a multiplicity of names and
> abbreviations when you're searching an archive.  Sometimes it is

  True, but usually one accesses an archive via some name resolver (like
  SIMBAD or NED, which resolve the name to a pair of coordinates and locate
  all objects close to it).

> designation will rarely be entered after archival.  Many archives are
> run on a shoestring and I doubt that there are the resources to edit
> the headers of most observations.

  human resources or computer/software resources ?  :-(

  A keyword is 68 bytes in an 80-byte card image, thus there is always
  SPARE SPACE to edit it afterwards IN PLACE (no need of rewriting data)
  (e.g. when data go into the archive, when the archive goes public, when
  data are written to a permanent medium like a CD). No problem with h/w
  or s/w. So in principle the observer can use whatever name or nickname,
  and the correct name can be inserted later while archiving. But ...

> IMHO the way ahead is education promulgated by the introduction of
> observation-preparation tools, such as that of the Gemini Project and
> space-based telescopes.  These demand that the targets be specified
> _before_ observing commences, for example to avoid duplication.

  I'm quite used to satellite observation scheduling (being essentially
  an X-ray astronomer), but that's not going to solve the problem (one
  proposal PI will always be typing "Mkn501" and another one "1652+398",
  and none place any catalogue designator in front), but often mission
  planning teams are no more staffed than archival teams, so either they
  run a name resolver while checking the proposals, or the problem will
  stay the same.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lucio Chiappetti - IFCTR/CNR - via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano (Italy)      
For more info : http://www.ifctr.mi.cnr.it/~lucio/personal.html             
----------------------------------------------------------------------------