field definitions in view results?

I'm having a problem that when I do a view with union between 2 tables
that have varchar(8) fields, that the (8) seems to be missing from the
result.

e.g. create table t1 (astr varchar(8));
     create table t2 (astr varchar(8));
     create view v1 as select * from t1 union select * from t2;
     insert into t1 values ('STR');

in psql, "\d v1" gives "character varying" for the type.

Is there any way to get the (8) limit on the view result without doing
  create view v1 as
      select cast(v2.astr as varchar(8)) as astr
      from (select * from t1 union select * from t2) v2

pg 7.4.7 on redhat linux 9.

klint.

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