Re: Suspected Variables in TASS data

[aah@nofs.navy.mil]

John wrote that he uses the Aladin interface for checking
stars; this is a good idea for *all* observers, as you can
look at deeper, good-seeing plate material when picking
isolated comp stars.
  However, the problem is that TASS, as well as just about
every other automated survey, will find thousands of variables.
You cannot manually look at each and every one.  Checking the first few
is a good idea, but you need a software method of removing
false positives.  The WS index is one such test.  For FASTT, we also
chose the astrometric position, throwing out those stars whose
variation corresponded to a simultaneous centroid error or fwhm error.
Sure, you end up throwing away a few true variables, but there are plenty
to go around!
Arne