I've been using the WebObs form to submit data in the AAVSO Extended File Format for several years now. In the past few weeks, for example, I've submitted many measurements of V627 Peg. When I upload the file, the header contains a line like this:
#DATE=HJD
to indicate that the dates for each measurement are Heliocentric Julian Dates. Here's one of the data lines from the same uploaded file:
#V627 Peg,2459431.79704,13.490,0.038,V,NO,STD,ENSEMBLE,na,120,12.002,na,na,X26767AK,na
WebObs accepts the files without any error or warning.
However, as another user pointed out to me today, when one reads these measurements from WebObs, the dates are listed as "JD", not "HJD". For example, the image below shows a screenshot from the WebObs search tool.
http://spiff.rit.edu/richmond/temp/rhm_example.jpg
The date "2459431.79704" from the submitted file has been displayed as "JD", rather than "HJD".
This appears to be a problem. Am I doing something wrong? Is the system displaying the type of date incorrectly? Or is everything working as designed?
Michael
Hello Michael,
Thank you for pointing this out. Someone pointed out the same problem a couple of days ago. We have been able to confirm that webobs is not converting from JD to HJD during the upload. Since we are now aware of the problem, we are looking at what the cause might be. Once the problem is sorted we will be able to correctly convert the HJDs on our end back to JD. The input HJDs are saved as well. We will inform you when the issue has been resolved.
Thanks,
Bert Pablo
Staff Astronomer, AAVSO
Michael,
Something going on here.
But first, the line you show in your message is commented out; ie, it starts with a #. So it would not be seen as data.
Please post the whole submission form.
When I look at the data in the AID, JD==HJD. Which doesn't look right.
There is a reported issue that the system is not properly converting HJD back to JD. Which is what we are seeing here.
I'll follow up on this.
George
The error in converting HJD to JD has been fixed.
Staff is looking at fixing the problem in data already submitted. So, no need to resubmit data.
George