VSX search for ASAS stars?

Technology VSX
1

Hello,

if I want to do a VSX search (direct or via VizieR) for a ASAS star like

by using the name
ASAS J163702+0818.3
I always get no result. How can I find such a star with search functions ?

CS
Thomas

2

Hi Thomas,
try to use the coordinates of this star in the VSX search box hitting the more option:
16 37 02 +08 18.3

Regards,
Josch

3

Well, thatā€™s a chicken and
egg problem ā€¦ I actually wanted to know the coordinates and not enter them. So you can no longer search for names in the VSX catalog? In the link I have given, a name is displayed ? So there is a different procedure for ASAS stars? Normally I would like to know the coordinates and the VSX OID (with a query of the VSX database in VizieR) so this is not possible for ASAS stars ?

4

I am not sure. Sebastian Otero has to respond to this.

5

Hi Thomas,

I canā€™t reproduce your error.
I am always taken to the ASAS J163702+0818.3 VSX page when I enter its name in the search box and do an alphanumeric search.

It wouldnā€™t make sense not being able to search by a primary name in VSX, and there is no reason to treat ASAS variables differently.

However, some users have been experiencing long waiting times when doing name searches, and that happens with some stars and not others. Maybe your search timed out? What is exactly happening after you click ā€œSearchā€?

Cheers,
Sebastian

6

Hi Sebastian,

yes it takes a few minutes then it is successful. Thatā€™s really strange, with some names it works immediately and with others it always takes ages. BTW, the VizieR page also takes a long time and then says that the VSX catalog is not available. At least now I know that it works in principle. I will save the OID after the first access and then always use it, it always works reliably and quickly.

Thanks and CS
Thomas

P.S. VizieR says: Table ā€˜B/vsx/vsxā€™ not available, should be accessible after: 2025-07-02T11:26:15 ā€¦ a long time , itā€™s July :frowning:

7

Vizier seems to have some stability issues in general recently (so as the mirrors in Harvard CFA and nao.ac.jp).

For the name search, I guess a possible workaround for coordinated based names such as ASAS, is to convert it to a coordinate and do a coordinate search instead, e.g.,

ASAS J163702+0818.3 ==> 16 37 02 +08 18 18

8

Thanks for letting us know.
Now it is not giving a time, only a date:

Table B/vsx/vsx accessible after 2025-07-02

Weird. But as Sam mentioned, there have been significant performance issues with VizieR lately so I canā€™t help thinking that both things are related.
I have contacted them in order to learn more.

Cheers,
Sebastian

1 Like
9

VSX is now available again in VizieR :slight_smile:

1 Like