Variable Stars Observer
VarObs version 3.0 beta
June 22 2008
by Patrick Chevalley
http://www.ap-i.net/skychart
This program help you to plan and log variable stars observations.
The main windows show for each star in the current
input file the time of next minima and maxima and the estimated
actual magnitude.
Each column can be sorted by clicking the
corresponding heading.
A mouse right click on a line show you a
menu to enter a new observation, to show the estimated light curve
and your observation point or to plot a chart.
Options :
Use the File - Options menu to define :
1- The data file used by the program to plot the
light curve. The default option is to work with file in AAVSO Visual
format but you can also read VSNET, AFOEV or other old AAVSO files or
define your own file format to plot observation.
It is possible to
plot data from the AAVSO Quick Look or AFOEV
Archive without checking this option here, look forward at the Light
Curve plot.
2- Select to use either the internal data entry or
the AAVSO PCObs program to record your observation. Using PCObs is
recommended if you submit your observation to the AAVSO.
If using
the internal tool specify the observation file where you store the
data you enter from the program. This file can only be in AAVSO Visual
or in VSNET format.
The normal way to use
this program is to use the same file to plot light curve and to log
observation, this can be the cumulative file generated by PCObs.
3- The default observer name initials.
4- The default saved chart used to initialize "Cartes du Ciel / Sky Charts". This allow you to use different chart default when running ciel.exe from varobs (typically use a smaller window and activate the GCVS catalogue).
5- The source of the additional observational data to
plot. You have the choice between the AAVSO Quick Look and the AFOEV Archive data. This data are plotted in addition
to the one specified at point 1-.
QuickLook is good to display
recent observation over a short period, on the other hand AFOEV
Archive give data for a long period.
6- The path the the AAVSO charts directory, this can
be a local directory or Internet access. Press “...” to
select the local directory or press the “Internet Online
Access” button to access from the AAVSO web page, or enter
ftp://ftp.aavso.org/charts/standard
for FTP access.
The chart is displayed using the default
application in your system, this is the default browser in the case
of Internet access or the image software assigned to .gif or .jpg
files.
Planning :
The initial display show observing condition for
variable stars in the ephemeris file, the actual magnitude estimate
is rounded to the nearest integer to avoid subliminal influence to
your estimate.
Select the date format you want and press
"Compute".
You can search for a star name or sort
the column by a click to the heading.
A mouse right click on a
line show you a menu to enter a new observation, to show the light
curve, display the AAVSO chart or to plot a chart using "Cartes
du Ciel / Sky Charts".
Beware to use up to date ephemeris
file to obtain a good precision, specially for short period
variables.
This version of the program came with data for long
period variables updated with the data from the AAVSO bulletin. This
is the aavsoxxx.txt files.
The Tools Menu let you refresh this data each
year with the files published on the AAVSO
web page.
You can also copy the stars of your observation plan
from the file aavsoval.txt which contain data for the entire
validation file.
You can change the active file using the File - Open menu. This allow you to use different observation list.
The file format is : star name , var. type , mag.
max. , mag. min. , initial epoch , period , rise time or eclipse
time, aavso designation
Each field is separated by a coma. See
file sample.txt for more explanation and examples.
For the
magnitude the program assume that a value without dot is given in
tenth of magnitude. (15 is magnitude 1.5 but 15. is magnitude 15.0)
The files in the \const directory are ephemeris input
files by constellation for 16'000 stars from the GCVS.
Beware that
the origin date for this ephemeris is far from now and the precision
may suffer of that. Then this files must be considered as examples
only.
Light curve :
This screen show you a predicted symbolic light curve
as well as observation data point. For irregular variables or if
insufficient parameters are given only the observation are plotted.
If the period is missing the data are show from 100 days before the
actual date.
Click on the graph to view the magnitude and
date. A check box give you the choice to stay on the curve or
not.
You can change the colour as you want (click the colour
box) or copy the graph to the clipboard or to a bitmap file.
If
you are connected to the Internet it is possible to get additional
data form the source specified in the Options. This can be data from
the AAVSO Quick Look , VSNET data browser or AFOEV Archive. Use the
"Get QuickLook" or "VSNET browser" button for
that.
This data are stored in the quicklook\ , vsnetdata\ or
afoevdata\ directory to use them offline later and the display is
controlled by the "Plot QuickLook" or "Plot VSNET
data" checkbox.
If you check "Group observation to current phase" all observation data in file are reduced to the current phase. This require a very regular and well know period value. The goal is to find the observation date favourable to complete a light curve with missing data at some phase.
Enter new observation :
If you use the internal tool :
Complete all necessary field then press the "Add"
button to put the line in the list and you may enter a second
observation or modify entry in the list.
Then press "Save to
File" to record all observation in the list to the observation
file.
Other option are to clear all the list or edit the
observation file. To do that you must have a program associated with
the observation file type. (if you use the default .txt this will use
notepad.exe or another text editor).
If you record your
observations in VSNET format the program try to automatically convert
the star name between gcvs and vsnet notation ( R And -> ANDR, omi
Cet -> CETomicron).
If you use the AAVSO PCObs program :
I suggest you always use this program if you intend
to submit your observations to the AAVSO. It is available from
http://www.aavso.org .
PCObs
is started the first time you need it. The star designation if
available or the star name is copied to the clipboard, you can use
Shift+Insert to copy the value to PCObs.
Refer to the PCObs
documentation for more information.
AAVSO Charts :
After a click to this menu a list of the available
charts for the current star is presented. To display a chart just
click the line with the chart you want.
You have generally the
choice for an image format (GIF, JPG, PNG) or a Postscript file
compressed to a ZIP file.
Refer to the AAVSO web page for more
information on the different charts.
The program use the AAVSO
chart database to find the available charts for a star. You may need
to updated this file regularly to take advantage of new or updated
charts. Download the file united.txt from
http://www.aavso.org/observing/charts/chartdatabase.shtml
and replace it in the installation directory.
Plot Chart :
It is necessary to install "Cartes du Ciel / Sky
Charts" first. This program is freely available from
http://www.astrosurf.org/astropc
The program version must be at
least 2.44 for DDE server support.
Install the base package
along with the variable star package. The Sky2000 Master Catalog or
Tycho Catalog package is also recommended for good reference stars
magnitude.
Run ciel.exe a first time to initialize default value
for the program. After that the program can be started automatically
from varobs the first time you select "Show Chart".
It
is possible to use specific default when starting ciel.exe from
varobs.
First: run ciel.exe and select all the option you want
(window size and position, field of vision, catalogue used, labels or
grid, ...) then use "File" -> "Save chart" and
give a name to your default file.
Second: run varobs.exe and put
your file name including full path in the "Setup"
panel.
Use this charts only as finder charts, always use the
charts from AAVSO or VSNET for reference stars magnitude.
"Cartes
du Ciel / Sky Charts" can only find variables stars name in
standard format (i.e. R And) but not in VSNET notation (i.e. ANDR)
then use the standard format name in your ephemeris file. This is not
a problem as the name is automatically converted to VSNET format in
the observation file.
This option is not available if the
program is started from Deepsky 2000. Run the chart from Deepsky 2000
in this case.
Command line parameter :
-c filename Specify the name of the ephemeris file to
use.
-n Disable the chart menu.
License :
Copyright (C) 2008 Patrick
Chevalley
pch@ap-i.net
This program is free
software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
This program is
distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public
License for more details.
You should have received
a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program;
if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.