Tue, 03/07/2023 - 20:56
Hello All,
I'd like to inform you that the long anticipated re-write of VSP is now live on the site. We tried to make the front end as similar as possible to the former VSP, but there are some minor differences. You can find a summary of these differences here:
We have tried to test the application as much as we can, but there will inevitably be a few bugs we didn't catch. If you run into any issues or think there might be a bug, please let us know, either by posting in this forum or by sending an email to webmaster@aavso.org. A big thank you to Matt Craig who volunteered a significant chunk of time to take on this re-write. It would not have been possible without him.
Thanks,
Bert Pablo
Staff Astronomer , AAVSO
Thanks for catching that (somewhat embarrassing) typo.
I'll ask Bert about adding a "only display variables in the AID" option. That makes sense to me, and should be easy enough to implement, but I want to double check.
Are the changes you are seeing in the width of the plot fairly small? I just tried a pair of charts, listed below and see that there is a small change, and that the outline of the plot isn't quite right (the copyright notice in the bottom right also extends outside the box). This change in size was not intended -- one of the things I wanted to try to improve was consistency between charts with different limiting magnitudes.
The two charts: https://app.aavso.org/vsp/chart/?chartid=X28720CUH and https://app.aavso.org/vsp/chart/?chartid=X28720CUN
Thank you very much for your fast reply.
I have taken this to the extreme in the (DSS) diagram https://app.aavso.org/vsp/chart/X28720DSB.png of the same field.
Now the diagram shrinks even more in x-direction but also in y-direction! I think this should not happen.
With the earlier version of VSP, I created two charts: e.g. one with only the main variable (in the middle) and one with GCVS variables (in most cases the brighter additional variables in the FOV). Then - with the help of Photoshop - I superimposed the two charts and masked the variables that were of no interest to me. This way I get a single chart with (e.g. five) interesting variables in my FOV. This took me fifteen minutes to create that chart with the variables of interest to me.
If
1. the size of the star field depends on the limiting magnitude and
2. hundreds of variable stars appear in the chart (with option "all variables")
this (simple) method is no longer possible.
Now I have to create more and more VSP charts (with only one variable) and puzzle them together to get a single chart with (my) variables in the FOV.
I suggest not to change the dimensions of charts with the same FOV and the same central coordinates but different magnitude limits. It might then happen that some names of variables are cut off at the sides of the map, but this should be tolerable and greatly improves the comparison of the same FOV with different magnitude limits.
Your suggestion to have an option to only display variable in the AID turned out to be straightforward to implement. I imagine it will be live on the site within a couple of weeks, but that depends a bit on what other things are going on at HQ.
I'll look into the size changes. The intent was that they should all be exactly the same size, so this is definitely a bug that needs to get fixed.
Hi,
I wanted to let you know that you can now select only the variables in AID for display on your chart, rather than all variables. In addition, the chart size should now all be the same regardless of what labels are present and whether or not you add a DSS image.
In testing yesterday I dropped a couple into an image editor to make sure alignment of the stars is the same, and it seemed to be.
Label placement depends on what other labels are being displayed, so you might have issues with the same comparison star having its label in two different places depending on whether other variables are displayed and depending on the magnitude limit of the chart.
The reason for the second is that labels try not to sit over stars, so as more stars are added the label may move.
Please try out the new version and let me know if it works for you.
Thanks again for reporting the problems, and apologies for the delay in getting the fixes done.
Matt
thank you very…
Hi Matt,
thank you very much for including the the variables in AID option. It works good for me.
Some (minor) comments:
1.
If you compare the same FOV normal chart to the corresponding DSS chart, the DSS chart is a little bit compressed in y direction. You see it when you "blink" the two charts in Windows or look at the two borderlines that always appear only in DSS charts (N and S).
Example (the only parameter changed was DSS):
https://app.aavso.org/vsp/chart/?star=R+CrB&orientation=ccd&type=chart&fov=60.0&maglimit=16.0&resolution=150&north=up&east=left&other=aid&lines=True
https://app.aavso.org/vsp/?star=R+CrB&orientation=ccd&type=chart&fov=60.0&maglimit=16.0&resolution=150&north=up&east=left&dss=True&other=aid&lines=True
In old VSP that did not happen.
2.
Not all AID stars (in example above) are displayed:
NSV 20408 (=107) is marked but not NSV 7290 (=106).
3.
If one changes the resolution (150) to another value, always the same chart is displayed (resolution is always the same).
Hans-Georg
Hi Hans-Georg,
>>> Not all AID stars (in example above) are displayed:
NSV 20408 (=107) is marked but not NSV 7290 (=106). <<<
NSV 20408 is nearly constant, I revised its entry in VSX and the only variability (likely rotational) detected is by TESS from space with an amplitude of 0.007 mag. It doesn't make much sense to observe it from the ground. It is actually a 106 (V= 10.61) so its value will have to be revised.
NSV 7290 is not plotted because it is classified as CST in VSX. We don't want people to observe constant stars.
The two objects have AUIDs because there are observations submitted to the AID, so we can't remove the AUIDs. Otherwise we would do it, to avoid people wasting time on these objects.
Keep in mind that several of the stars from the NSV catalogue that are still listed as suspects will turn out to be constant when checking survey data (ASAS-SN, ASAS-3, TESS, etc.).
Cheers,
Sebastian