Vedran8080

The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database versus SEDS.org

According to the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) entry on Messier 81, which is used by professional astronomers, the apparent magnitude of M81 is 7.9. With a couple of exceptions, this database is more reliable and better referenced than any amateur astronomy website. If necessary, I will start listing multiple professional astronomy catalog references that give the apparent magnitude as 7.9. (Note that NED is being used as a reference for extragalactic objects in Wikipedia in general.)

The SEDS.org website is unreliable in general. Much of their information is poorly referenced or based on out-of-date scientific information. Please do not use it as a reference.

If you have any additional questions, please contact me. Dr. Submillimeter 10:33, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Your second approach to finding the apparent magnitude for M81 was much better than your first approach. I changed the reference for the magnitude (because it came from a specific catalog) but otherwise left the magnitude unchanged.

Looking at your edits, you seem to be having some problems with figuring out how to write in the Wikipedia markup language. In particular, you seem to be having problems with references. Would you like help on this? Dr. Submillimeter 15:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

References for visible magnitudes

If you want to use visible magnitudes, that is OK. However, you are going to need to change the references. Do you understand the reference system used in Wikipedia? Would you like help with the reference system? If you do not change the references, then I will revert your edits. Dr. Submillimeter 13:32, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi. Thanks for offering help. How to set references correctly?

See Wikipedia:Footnotes. Most astronomy articles are currently using footnotes or are being converted to use footnotes.

When first citing a source, I recomment using the following format:

For books:

<ref name="authordate">{{cite book

| author=I. I. Author

| year=0000

| title=Title

| publisher=Publisher

| location=Location

| id=ISBN 0-000-00000-0}}</ref>

For journal articles:

<ref name="authordate">{{cite journal

| author=I. I. Author, I. J. Author

| title=Article title

| journal=Journal title

| year=0000

| volume=0

| pages=0-0

| url=http://www.website.edu}}</ref>

For websites:

<ref name="websitename">{{cite web

| title=Website name

| url=http://www.website.edu

| accessdate=0000-00-00}}</ref>

More details on these templates are given at Wikipedia:Citation templates. If you cite a reference more than once, than all citations after the first can be written as <ref name="refname" />.

The references themselves can be displayed by creating a reference section that looks like the following:

==References==

<div class="references-small"><references/></div>

At the moment, most of the references used for good astronomical articles are scientific journal papers, academic textbooks, or professional websites (such as NED or SIMBAD). Amateur astronomy websites and books for amateur astronomers are generally useful for amateur astronomy observations and historical information, but they are otherwise not necessarily reilable.

Let me know if you need more information.

(Also, when leaving a comment on a talk page, sign your comments with ~~~~. This attaches your username and the date to your comments so that other people can identify who made them.) Dr. Submillimeter 11:47, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:31, 23 November 2015 (UTC)