Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Fri, 03/24/2023 - 07:22
Dear obsrvers, help me please to understand how to use sets of simple* data (gotten from different sources) in one plot? All of them are "unspecified" for VStar, and all my attempts to separate sets with creation of serias or adding of obs. codes were unsucsessfull. I guess, that it should be very simple operation, but I can not understand how to do it, how to select and shift each simple dataset indepenpendently from other ones.
________________________________________________________
*) Simple format, consisting of lines of the form:
Julian Date,Magnitude,[Uncertainty],[Observer Code],[Validation Flag]
or simply: Julian Date,Magnitude
Hi Degen
You could create new series as per p46 of the user manual or you could use the Flexible Text Format plugin.
See https://www.aavso.org/vstar-plugin-library#flexible
David
1. I load simple dataset #1 with Flexible Text Format plugin and see "unspecified" lightcurve.
2. I make seria 1 from dataset #1.
3. I load simple dataset #2 with Flexible Text Format and "add to current" option. Seria 1 disappears immediately, both datasets are joined as single "unspecified".
Filters do not help too. I suppose, the best way of filtering is using #NAME=dataset (page 7), but how to add #NAME field to simple spreadsheet?
What to do? Help please create different lightcurves from different simple data.
Hi Degen
Please go to https://www.aavso.org/users/david-benn and use the Contact form to send me an email.
I will reply and I can then ask you to attach the files you are using. If you don't mind. Or if you already have a location where I can obtain the files from (e.g. Dropbox), we can do that instead.
David
Hi Degen,
The Flexible Text File Format Reader requires adding some directives at the top of the text file that describes its format and properties.
Try the #FILTER directive.
If you use a non-standard filter, you can also define it for the file (I've just found that this option is not covered by the existing documentation).
For example, if you want to define your own series (filter), you can use:
#FILTER= ASAS-SN V +0.14
#DEFINESERIES=ASAS-SN V +0.14,ASAS-SN V +0.14,#00FF00
The third parameter is the color code (green in the example)
The first two parameters (make them identical for simplicity) are the filter name, which appears on the plot.
As an example, see https://github.com/AAVSO/VStar/wiki/Working-with-Observation-Sources#loading-ztf-data-with-flexible-text-format-plug-in
(at the end of the ZTF 'recipe' you can find an example of the #DEFINESERIES directive)
A lot of thanks, Maxim, for your kind advice! Now VStar began to work properly with simple data.
Well, I looked at the documentation by the link https://github.com/AAVSO/VStar/blob/master/plugin/doc/FlexibleTextFileFormat%20Plug-In.pdf and found that the #DEFINESERIES directive is actually mentioned in the doc. However, to see it, the user must click [more pages] at the end. Not obvious to the user, even to me...