Recent improvements to VSX
Thanks are due to Patrick Wils for making these changes possible :)
We have now added a catalog data section where mean magnitudes of the variable star in different wavelengths are presented.
This way you can get infrared photometry from 2MASS and AllWISE, optical photometry from APASS and SDSS and ultraviolet photometry from GALEX.
To use these data you have to keep in mind the limitations of each source, their limiting magnitudes, etc. This is meant to be a one stop shop to make things easier for you but does not replace the complete information given in each of the catalogues.
Up to now, VSX included Variable (V), Suspected (S) and Non-variable (N) stars. A new classification was added to the above ones: Not checked ( ).
This classification or flag was added in order to include published lists that do not really meet the VSX standars regarding coordinate precision. This means that some of these stars may actually be duplicates of objects already in VSX but due to the nature of those catalogues (e.g.: poor coordinates in crowded fields) the identifications with known VSX objects could not be established.
Further checking is needed for these stars to be correctly identified.
Most will be bona-fide variables but there may be some artifacts too.
This flag was added following our aim to be as complete as possible without forgetting about the quality of the presented data.
More features: sky coverage plots can now be displayed from the Search form. These plots (equatorial and galactic views) will show the stars found by the query.
An example: click on the More button twice to get all the extended search options.
You can then select variability types, catalog colors, etc. and display them.
My favourite ones are the maps showing the completely different distribution of CW% and DCEP% stars :)
Finally, as usual, we keep adding stars published in the literature, especially lists including a large number of stars.
The last one is a list with 4827 new RR Lyraes from ASAS-SN.
You will soon add more variables from ASAS-SN and many more lists that we have had pending for a couple of years.
We hope you enjoy these new features.
Sebastian
Thanks a lot for adding these new features, Patrick (Wils) and Sebastian!
Hi Sebastian,
Great to see! One thing I'd like to feature is:
if the user unticks the various 'type' boxes (i.e., in my case, only show variables, not suspects or non-variables, etc) and then hits the 'more' button, those unwanted boxes are ticked again. Could we not have the user's choices persist over a given session?
Otherwise VSX is brilliant.
Hi Michael,
Actually it was preserving the choices of the last time you clicked "Search" (or "Plot) or the default values if you hadn't clicked those buttons in the current session. I have always found this a bit odd as well, so your remark made me change the behaviour. Your current choices will now be preserved when you click on the "More" or "Less" buttons.
Patrick
See why we have to thank Patrick? ;)
Thank you to Patrick and Sebastian, and any others that contribute to maintaining VSX. I use it often.
I think these recent upgrades have resulted in a change that might be unintended. I normally use VSX by going to "Search", entering an id (usually a GCVS-style id), and hitting "return" on the keyboard. This used to produce the same result as clicking the "search" button. Now however, it produces a plot comprising a big elliptical representation of the entire sky, with perhaps one tiny dot in it. This doesn't appear to be useful, so perhaps it was unintended.
I am hoping that the old function might be restored, i.e. that hitting "return" on the keyboard causes the same behaviour as clicking "search".
Thank you, Gary Billings
Hi Gary and Stephen,
This may be browser specific. I tested on Firefox and Chrome and there it works just fine. I have re-ordered the buttons at the bottom of the form, so that it should work on all browsers.
Patrick
That works fine now, Patrick. Thanks. (I use Safari on my Mac. I have Chrome and Firefox, but as a long time user of Safari, that is my preference).
Stephen
Yes, now it works like it used to. Thank you Patrick. (I'm using Safari on mac).
Gary
I had to change the order of the buttons again as some users didn't get used to the new order. I did some more programming to make sure the "Enter" key will still do a "Search" on Safari, not a plot.
Patrick
Yah, I think this revised order is more in line with what folks would expect.
Thank you for your continuing work...
Gary Billings
I do appreciate all the work being put in by Patrick and Sebastian.
I have found the same thing as Gary and agree with him. It would be nice to have the old functionality reinstated as Gary described.
Cheers
Stephen
Thanks to Patrick and Sebstian for this new features. Great!
Regards,
Juan-Luis