Digital Archiving: Where the Past Lives Again
Kevin B. Paxson
20219 Eden Pines, Spring, TX 77379
Presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the AAVSO, October 8, 2011; received October 21, 2011; revised February 2, 2012; accepted February 14, 2012
The process of digital archiving for variable star data by manual entry with an Excel spreadsheet is described. Excel-based tools including a Step Magnitude Calculator and a Julian Date Calculator for variable star observations where magnitudes and Julian dates have not been reduced are presented. Variable star data in the literature and the AAVSO International Database prior to 1911 are presented and reviewed, with recent archiving work being highlighted. Digitization using optical character recognition software conversion is also demonstrated, with editing and formatting suggestions for the OCR-converted text.