Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thu, 09/20/2018 - 14:09
Is it possible to upload a FITS image to my VPhot account which is from someone who doesn't have a VPhot account, i.e. from someone who can't "share" the image?
Phil
Hi Phil:
Yes, you can upload other's images. Ideally it will have appropriate fits headers for their scope/ccd.
Ken
Thanks, Ken. This brings up another question.
Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but I have been under the impression that VPhot uses the "header name" of the scope (from the value of the keyword TELESCOP) to direct the uploaded image to the right account. If the "other's" image has a different value for TELESCOP how does it get to my acccount?
Phil
VPhot looks for a username parameter to steer the image to the correct account. This can be either the FITS header USERNAME or OBSERVER value.
The other item VPhot needs is the platescale of the image. This it will get from the telescope package named in the TELESCOP field of the image header. If not found, the default will be 2"/pixel. This reference could be a common scope like iT24 or BSM_NH. And you can add another telescope to your own account to satisfy this requirement. The TELESCOP does not define the username parameter.
George
Thank you, George, for clearing that up.
I expect to be getting some images from two outside sources, a high school with an observatory and a local public observatory run by amateurs. If I set up telescopes in my VPhot account for each of them and edited their FITS headers using my VPhot account name (SPP) for USERNAME or OBSERVER, would that send their images to my VPhot account?
Phil
Phil:
In order to upload an image(s), you are already logged into your account (SPP). The simplest option is just to select your scope from the "my telescopes" pull down under quick upload, and then select their images from the folder you stored them on your computer.
IF the images were collected with Maxim, they will likely have all the fits header info needed. I am making the assumption that they are already plate-solved and VPhot does not have to run its own plate-solution? Is this true?
So just try it without editing any headers. IF, my assumptions are incorrect (no plate solution nor image scale), you can set up another personal scope on your account with the specific header info from these images. If you are going to do this regularly for a particular group, then setting up an additional new scope on your account certainly helps.
Have you been successful yet at uploading any of these images? IMHO, just try it first.
Ken
Ken,
I haven't received the images yet. Both telescope systems are run with TheSkyX. I would expect they will be plate solved and have the image scale in the header. If they aren't solved already, I'll do that before uploading them.
I'll try it your way first.
Right now I'm just going to help them with transforms. If it turns out to be more than that I'll probably set up their scopes in my VPhot account.
I'll let you know what happens.
Phil
Ken,
You were right. I was able to upload the two images from the observatory of a local high school, but it is interesting how it worked.
These B and V NGC 7790 images came to me with very rudimentry headers. ...no OBJCTRA or OBJCTDEC. Also, they had no USERNAME, FILTER, or TELESCOP.
I edited the headers, adding OBJCTRA and OBJCTDEC using the published coordinates of NGC 7790. I also added FILTER with values based on the file names. I uploaded the images to astrometry.net for plated solutions.
I have two telescope setups in VPhot. I uploaded one of the plate solved images to my older telescope setup, and the other image to the current setup. Both quickly appeared up in my VPhot images list.
The surprise came when I looked at the headers for the VPhot images. They each now had USERNAME, EGAIN, and TELESCOP with values from the accounts to which they had been uploaded. So, somewhere in the processing in VPhot the header information is modified to match the account to which they were uploaded.
Phil