[TDA_wg] Outline of discussion at Hotwired IV

[Virginia Trimble]

Arnold Rots <arots at cfa.harvard.edu> wrote:

> Recently, there was a discussion among the members of the IAU Acronym
> Clearinghouse,
> triggered by a request to register one of the SNe acronyms in use.
> Not to put too fine a point on it - this area is a mess.
>
> There are multiple acronyms pointing to the same SN, some change names,
> many look alike
> but are different.
> There seem to be two main reasons for it.
> Obviously, it will not always be immediately clear whether a transient is
> actually a SN, but
> there is legitimate desire to publish the transient event with a name. If
> it then later needs
> to be included in a list of SNe, the name may, or may not, change.
> It seems to be hard to reach agreement on a common naming scheme, since
> different groups
> prefer (to put it mildly) to name transients they discover in their own way.
>
> If there is a desire to keep the classic series of names like SN1987a,
> there will need to be
> an effort to synchronize the naming of transients and their transition to
> SNe.
> If not, we can either design something new or we will end up with anarchy
> where people
> will have a hard time figuring out the identity of SNe - at least people
> outside the circle
> of SNe wizards intimately familiar with their individual characters.
>
> If the Clearinghouse can help, I am sure we would be willing.
>
> Cheers,
>
>   - Arnold
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Arnold H. Rots                                          Chandra X-ray
> Science Center
> Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory                   tel:  +1 617 496
> 7701
> 60 Garden Street, MS 67                                      fax:  +1 617
> 495 7356
> Cambridge, MA 02138
> arots at cfa.harvard.edu
> USA
> http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 7:39 PM, Andy Howell <ahowell at lcogt.net> wrote:
>
> >
> >    1.
> >       1.
> >
> >   Folks,
> > Upon request, here is the outline I presented during a discussion at the
> > Hotwired meeting about what will be needed in the future to share
> > information about transients.  The consensus was that the community should
> > write a white paper to outline what they need.  I am happy to start
> > bringing together such a draft.  Perhaps this will get the discussion
> > started.
> > -Andy
> >
> >
> > ----------------
> >
> >    1.
> >
> >    1)  Naming schemes (current IAU SN naming system has these undesirable
> >    issues: SNe start with a PSN name, then transition to other names, may SNe
> >    go unnamed, and many groups give the same event different names).
> >     1.
> >
> >       A)  Name server? (i. e. there is a new transient at location X,
> >       returns name if one exists, assigns new one of not).
> >        2.
> >
> >       B)  Specific to event subtypes? (i.e. are separate naming
> >       conventions for GRBs / SNe / Novae, etc, a historical accident, or should
> >       they just all be 15abc as many surveys have done)
> >         2.
> >
> >    2)  Communicating discoveries
> >     1.
> >
> >       A)  IAU
> >        2.
> >
> >       B)  ATEL
> >        3.
> >
> >       C)  Web pages
> >         3.
> >
> >    3)  Sharing information in real time
> >     1.
> >
> >       A)  Scheduling resources e.g. I’m going to observer this tonight.
> >        2.
> >
> >       B)  Here’s the redshift, type, and spectrum.
> >        3.
> >
> >       C)  Here are the light curve points in all wavelengths
> >        4.
> >
> >       D)  Social media type interactions
> >         4.
> >
> >    4)  Iterating the above (e.g.. based on latest LC point and redshift,
> >    this object is likely...)
> >     5.
> >
> >    5)  Automated telescope triggering
> >     6.
> >
> >    6)  Archiving data / querying databases
> >    7.
> >
> >
> >    8.
> >
> >    Questions:
> >
> >
> >    - What types of events can work under the same system?  Supernovae,
> >    GRBs, microlensing, planets, variable stars, flares, etc.
> >
> >
> >    - Do we adapt existing infrastructure?  Build something new?
> >
> >
> >    - Where does the money come from?
> >
> >
> >    - Do we need the IAU?
> >
> >
> >    - Does it need to scale to LSST?
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TDA_wg mailing list
> > TDA_wg at timedomainastronomy.net
> > https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/tda_wg
> >
> >






Indeed a mess; 1897a was comet Levy; the SN was 1987A in accordance
with convention going back to Fritz Zwicky in early 1950s and endorsed
by IAU's second SN working group, of which I was the founding chair
(upon instructions from Vera Rubin) after the Patras IAU in 1982.

The IAU still, under international treaties going back to 1919, owns
the right to name celestial objects, decide on units, constellation
boundaries, and so forth, so if y'all can manage to work within
their structure, that would probably be a Good Thing

Virginia Trimble