Globular Clusters: Is This A Bug?

[VikingTechJPL]

Upon not being able to find the globular E1 tonight using Enter/Name/Enter, I checked the globulars.dsc file and found several instances where the word "Name" prefaces the globular designation. In Celestia, typing in the word "Name" using Enter/Name/Enter finds them all too.

On checking Simbad, it too shows this under the Basic Data: field at top, but it is not repeated down below in Identifiers. Is this a bug? Should the word "Name" be taken out of these designations?

GW

[t00fri]

Upon not being able to find the globular E1 tonight using Enter/Name/Enter, I checked the globulars.dsc file and found several instances where the word "Name" prefaces the globular designation. In Celestia, typing in the word "Name" using Enter/Name/Enter finds them all too.

On checking Simbad, it too shows this under the Basic Data: field at top, but it is not repeated down below in Identifiers. Is this a bug? Should the word "Name" be taken out of these designations?

GW

This is certainly not a bug. I have added the prefix 'Name' on purpose, since at Celestia release time SIMBAD would respond with not found without adding 'Name' in certain cases (E1 included). Since a perfect synchronisation with the world data archive SIMBAD was a most important criterion for me, I have run ALL my Celestia globulars (and galaxies) through the SIMBAD server and adapted the search acronyms precisely as required by the SIMBAD search engine.

Upon rechecking today, I noted that meanwhile SIMBAD also accepts 'E1' in its search interface. Two years ago SIMBAD still enforced 'name E1'. Even now, it responds with the designation 'Name E1' throughout.

Of course, personally, I never liked this addition of 'Name'.

Here is an explanation of the 'Name' prefix from the SIMBAD site:

"In SIMBAD only. The prefix 'NAME' is added in SIMBAD to qualify 'common' or 'historical' names
To find the designation as in the literature, drop the first word 'NAME'."

Anyone who prefers to skip that 'Name' prefix in Celestia can simply run my respective Perl script (after a trivial modification) and regenerate globulars.dsc without 'Name'. My Perl script globulars.pl is well commented, human readable and included in the official Celestia source distribution. It is found in src/tools/globulars. Perl runs in all OS and is even part of the operating system for MAC OS and Linux.

If there is interest, I am ready to offer all the required data files for download at Celestial Matters.

Fridger

[t00fri]

I just spotted some other globulars where SIMBAD still only accepts the usual designation with the Name prefix prepended!

Enter UKS 1 :
SIMBAD's reply: 'UKS 1': this identifier has an incorrect format for catalog: UKS : catalogue UKS

Enter Name UKS 1:
SIMBAD jumps to 'Name UKS 1' data page.

Enter CL ERID 1:
SIMBAD's reply: 'CL Erid 1': this identifier has an incorrect format for catalog: CL : catalogue Cl

Enter Name CL ERID 1:
SIMBAD jumps to 'Name CL ERID 1' data page.

Enter Whiting 1:
SIMBAD's reply: 'Whiting 1': this identifier has an incorrect format for catalog: W : ???

Enter Name Whiting 1:
SIMBAD jumps to 'Name Whiting 1' data page

etc for a few more globulars.


Fridger

PS: And for the fun of it : Here is the very young (~ 5 Gyr) globular Name Whiting 1 in Celestia.Sci. This remarkable globular is actually associated with the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal (Sgr dSph) galaxy. It is very likely that Whiting 1 originated in a dwarf galaxy that has since been disrupted by the Milky Way.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20066825

[Click on image by all means!]

Whiting1.jpg

[VikingTechJPL]

Thanks for the clarification.

With a little further checking the following were found:

As you say, it does not accept: CL ERID 1
But does accept: Name CL ERID 1
Also accepts: Eridanus Star Cluster
Also accepts: ERI star cluster
Also accepts: C 0422-213
Also accepts: Eridanus as in the InfoURL identifier, but this gives table of 10 different objects. Should the dsc file InfoURL identifier for this be changed to one that takes you directly to the globular in SIMBAD?

Does accept: E3
Does NOT accept: E 3
Does accept: Name E 3
Basic Data shows it as: Name E 3

Does accept: Sex C
But Basic Data shows it as: Name Sex C

Does accept: Serpens Dwarf
But Basic Data shows it as: Name Serpens Dwarf

Does accept Ton 1
Does NOT accept: Tonantzintla 1
Does accept: Name Tonantzintla 1

GW