Version 2.34 of Transform Applier (TA) is now released. This is as important release as it addresses questions raised about the result error computation.
Originally TA was designed to apply a strict error computation on its result and included errors for all the factors involved combined in quadrature. A review with Matt and Arne concluded fhat for AID WebObs submissions it is not appropriate to include the error of the comp reference stars. This conforms with the way the standardized error for VMAG (VERR) is computed.
For those of you concerned about past submissions to WebObs using the older version of TA, you can go there, delete those observations and resubmit with transforms computed by the new TA. As always, review the recompute, but I think you will be pleased that your careful observations are no longer stained by the reference star errors.
The latest version of TA is available here.
Other changes included in 2.34
- When TA opens it will check your version against the latest available and offer you a convenient, one-click, way to download it.
- I've begun adding feature to support DSLR submissions. TA will recognize the TG, TB and TR filters are to be treated as V, B and R. Just make sure you have the appropriate coefficients loaded! That is, Tb_bv should actually be T(tb)_bv and so forth. There is still more work to be done for DSLR support related to handling extinction for the extended fields of view. I'm working on that.
- You will also note that TA is adding more information to the comment section of the output record. This part of the AID/Extended Format update which is trying to make the record more complete.
George
SGEO
Hello George
I tried TA234. All seemed to go fine. When I tried to upload with Webops and got the following error:
"Line Number 24: The notes field should not exceed 100 characters.
Gary
Hi George,
TA 2.34 seems to work fine, but see the next remarks:
First: my BITDEFENDER antivirus have killed TA exe file immediately after my attempt to start it, so I have tuned off all antivirus and malicious files engines to be able to start the next downloaded TA exe.
Second: Some of my data were not transformed and this is the question, why?
I have attached three TXT files. One with combined data ready to be transformed (including #CREFMAG lines) second with the partly transformed data. In the second file exist several lines (to the end of B magnitude - see the screenshot) which were not transformed and the third with my BVI transformation coefficients ready to be uploaded in TA (just replace the the TXT extention with INI)
I will be very thankfull If you can test these data.
Regards,
Velimir
Velmir
I looked at the data you sent. This issue is that you have more B observations than you do V obs. With BV data TA will pair up the B and V observations into transform groups. This is supposed to be done by the user assigning the observations to groups in the GROUP field. But no one does that, not even me, trusting to TA's grouping. TA will take a B observation and look for the next available V in which to pair it. This works fine for data sorted in observation order.
In your case you ran out of V obs to match your B obs.
Ways around this:
- if you are not looking at fine time-based phenomena, aggregate your data. TA will do the whole batch or you can preprocess with boxter. When I ran TA aggregate I noted that the error climbed to 0.04, but that's because there are some possibly descrepant values. In TA clear the report, run the process un aggregated and the report will give you a convenient display of the reported values. I see a B value 2 mags different from the rest. Unless this is the phenomena you are focusing on, in which case aggregation won't work for you.
- I'm looking at supporting single filter transfroms in the future so that these unpaired B obs could be transformed based on recent B-V data. That will be a ways down the pike.
- You can prune your list of B obs until its count matches the count of V obs.
George
Hello George
Forgot to attach the file;
Gary
There is a problem with WebObs at this point that will prevent you uploading reports generated by TA 2.34. The AID database was modified to accept the longer comment fields, but WebObs is still enforcing the old limit of 100 characters. This will be fixed next week.
Version 2.35 of TA has the new error computation and avoids the long comment error. So if you want to submit data please rerun it through 2.35.
When this problem clears with WebObs I'll update TA again.
Meanwhile, there looks like a few issues reported here in the forum. I'll get to work on those now.
George
Hi George,
Thank you for the investigations. Later today after my post I guessed that the reason could be unequal number of the frames pair.
Unfortunately some of the images in V filter were saturated and it was impossible to use them. There is the time-based phenomena – in EB’s this is the both of the minima and maxima during their eclipse.
In the case of time series I should to remove the points which are not in pair (time depending) and to do transforms.
Velimir
With version 2.36 I'm developing airmass numbers for the V, Comp and Check stars. Using this you can see that in a narrow CCD field the airmass is pretty close between V and Comp. But when DSLR images are used this difference will be significant.
This is a beta release of the airmass feature. Once its fully vetted it will be used to:
- fill in the AMASS value if the submitted record came in "na"
- used for extinction computations
Even anyone sees a problem with this feature, sing out. I'll take all the backup testing I can get.
Thanks
George
I keep getting this error message and can't resolve it.
"Unable to write to C:\projects\astro\transformapplier\Mewlon 300 CRC_CC"
I've created C:\projects\astro\transformapplier\ but I don't know what to do to create the .ini file. I did copy the transformapplier .ini file and put it there, but I still get the error message. What else do I need to do?
Perplexed, Lew
Lew,
Don't copy the ini file from the download site. Delete it and let TA create a new one for you.
I'll fix this in the next version so it gives a better explanation at the fault.
George
Lew:
If I understand what you have done,. stop. Just open TA, add transform coeffs (or place holders) on appropriate tab, and close TA. An ini file will be created and saved (givie it a suitable name in the name box on the transform tab). Open TA again and you will see that the saved ini is used again.
See help tab item;
- TA stores your constants in the transformer.ini file alongside the Transformer.exe file. If
you have more than one set of coefficients, corresponding to a different observing platform, you
may have multiple INI files. Set the data on the coefficients page and execute "save as". You
can change back to other ini files with the "change" button. TA will remember the last ini file
that you accessed.
I think this should resolve your problem?
Ken
Single filter transforms can be performed if you have the necessary color information normally provided by using a second filter in the transform group. For instance, to transform B alone using the Tb_bv coefficient you need to provide the BV color of the target star. Since you have this coefficient then you must have a V filter available; you would use the single filter transform method in cases where your cadence is so high that you don't have time to take the V measurements during the run.
There are two ways to provide the color information to TA:
1) From prior observations or references find the target's reference color and its error. Add to your submission file a record: #BVCOLOR= color error
2) Take a V measurement at the beginning of the run and TA it will apply the color it finds there to the following B observations. For instance, you would submit VBBBBBBBBBBB observations.
You can extend this by adding periodic V observations (eg VBBBBBBVBBBBBBBVBBBBBB), but in this case you would have to manually set the group field in the records to define the VB pairs you intend. That is, the first VB observations should be assigned group 1, the second, group 2 and so forth. The singleton B obs can be left ungrouped and TA will give them the most recent BV color available with which to transform.
TA will do the following single filter transforms:
B with Tb_bv and a BVCOLOR
V with Tv_bv and a BVCOLOR
R with Tr_vi and a VICOLOR
I with Ti_vi and a VICOLOR
This is a new feature, so examine the results carefully the first time you use it. Any problems or questions? You are always welcome to contact me at SGEO@GASilvis.net
Download from https://github.com/gasilvis/TransformApplier/raw/TA/TransformApplier.exe
George
This release is a necessary update as the AAVSO has improved its VSP access API.
It includes:
2.40
- use new API for AAVSO photometry
2.39
- report Vairmass for AMASS if extinction applied
- edit of Tb_bv equation description
The earlier versions will no longer be able to fetch comp star photometry because of the HQ changes, so download the latest version. Do this via the TA update feature or goto https://www.aavso.org/transformapplier and get the latest version from the developer.
And of course, examine the results of any new release carefully and report issues promptly!
Cheers
George