TASS and AAVSO

[Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu>]

  Aaron Price asked "why hasn't anyone sent TASS photometric
measurements to the AAVSO?"  I think there are a couple of 
moderately good reasons why no one has done so yet.
  
  First, the AAVSO collects primarily visual observations. 
As I understand it, they do accept CCD observations, but only for
a relatively small number of stars.  Perhaps someone can correct
me on this point.  

  Second, (most of) the TASS Mark III observations are available to 
any interested person, in several forms:

      - on the TASS WWW site itself, 
               http://www.tass-survey.org/tass/www_scripts/make_chart.html

      - through the European SIMBAD service, at
               http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/VizieR-2?-source=II/230

  So, if an astronomer is studying, say, X Ceti, and is trying 
to gather observations of it, he can go to the AAVSO and ask for
their data ... and he can also (if he knows about us) go to one
of the above WWW sites and get our data.  

  I think that we can do a better job with the Mark IV data than we
did with the Mark III data, and I agree with most of what Chris Albertson
has written on the subject.  It will be a challenge, but I hope we
can make data available to all in a much more timely fashion.

                                            Michael Richmond