Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Sat, 07/13/2024 - 16:00
To: Group,
I tried over the last 10-days (maybe 5-7x) to transform my RW Hya data, but it just stalls and puts nothing in the output box after clicking the "Create Transformed AAVSO Report" link. Is it down? I was using it quite a bit 3 weeks and more ago and it worked fine then; I made a screen shot but the file upload button will not let me upload the .jpg screen shot.
James Foster
FJQ
I've experienced similar issues recently...today 7/13/24 I also had stall and no out output after clicking the transform button. JENJ
Similar problem for the last three days, except at times I received a "Secure Connection Failed" message.
TA still broken. I am just holding my data until it comes back online.
Reading the forums, It seems quite a few things are broken since the web page upgrade and are being worked on.
TA working now
Same error message as reported above.
Just checked and VPhot TA is working!
James
VPhoto Transform App down again......too bad since I was going to use this V0615 Vul data at a Zoom meet today....
James
What is the problem that you see?
From the server side it is running nominally.
Please, when you see a problem, make a complete report so that it can be investigated.
Thx,
George
Yes its working now......
This morning, whenever I paste or download into the top box(input) then hit "Create Transformed AAVSO Report" link, the 2nd box (output) stays blank.
Getting transformed magnitudes.......working (for)now!
James
Thanks James,
There is something strange in how VPhot needs to be initialized. Sometimes.
The workaround is to simply display an image. Then go back to the images page.
Now from there proceed with stacking or transformApplier or what ever.
I don't know why this is sometimes necessary; wish I did. Keep in mind that I am not the author of VPhot, just the maintainer. If there is a Microsoft/VBnet/ASPnet programmer out there that could help me understand how the c++ dll gets initialized, please contact me!
Cheers,
George
To: George,
Thanks for this work-around! I was about to complain again and I went thru your suggestion and uploaded 1 image to Vphot and Transform App worked.
Please note that this is a very "subtle" work-around and some folk may just give-up and send their data untransformed, which kinda defeats all the energy/resources AASVO put into this system to get our submitted magnitudes standardized for research use.
Btw, I almost never use Vphot for processing images, only to get transform coeff on selected cluster images in BVI every 6-months or so, so this extra step is a burden though much better than not transforming at all.
Thanks again for your efforts and maybe annotate this process on the Vphoto transform app page because few folks will see this on the forum trail.
Sincerely Yours,
James Foster. FJQ
Cannot transform with VPhot again! I placed multiple images in the "image" store in Vphot but this doesn't seem to be working anymore.
The transform page (middle screen) stays blank when hitting the Transform Applier link. Guess no more transformed magnitudes for awhile.....
James
James,
What do you mean by "placed multiple images in the "image" store in Vphot"?
TA does not work with images. It works with AEFF files, the txt files prepared for submission to webobs.
If it is a TA problem, then I assume you did the safety workaround of viewing an image before invoking TA.
If its still faulting then:
- send a copy of the AEFF file you are working with to gsilvis@aavso.org
- Also send a screen shot if its more interesting than just a blank output window.
I'll look in to this if I have some evidence of the problem.
Thx,
George
I meant to say…
To: George,
I meant to say that I placed a new image in my image buffer before trying to use Transform Applier. I did not view the image which I have now. When I transform my SS Cyg data, the (dark) screen comes up and says :
"Secure Connection Failed
An error occurred during a connection to vphot.aavso.org.
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.
Learn more…"
Is there anything else I can do to transform my data in Vphot's TA?
James
Hi James,
I've not seen these error messages before. hmm
The thing about viewing an image before doing TA is a workaround for a dll activation issue that I have not sorted out. Just looking at an image avoids the problem.
Please clarify: " I placed a new image in my image buffer before trying to use Transform Applier"
and " When I transform my SS Cyg data"
I take that to mean you uploaded an AEFF of SS Cyg data in the TA application.
Please
-send me the file you are trying to transform
-send a screen shot with the message you are seeing.
The error sounds beyond the VPhot/TA system, more like a comm issue. But we'll see.
I'm shutting down for the night. We can pick up tomorrow and do a zoom session if necessary.
George
The problem that James ran into was simply pushing too many observations into TA. 1000 records is too many!
If TA appears to be stalled, experiment with cutting your record count. We found 400 lines being a useful limit.
George
George, can you explain why 400 lines is a useful limit? Does it have to do with the capabilities of the server?
I have taken to doing photometry in chunks to accommodate this. An easy break is the meridian flip.
Ray
I don't know that 400 lines is a useful limit.
The constraint is memory allocation in the C++ dll called by the Vbnet VPhot.
I'll take a look at extending this.
How many lines would be reasonable, useful?
George
I think you did…
Hi George
I think you did 1000 lines briefly in the past. That may have caused problems?
I have used 1000 lines in fields rich with variables. There are fields that produce many more than 1000 data points per night, each average-stacked with 20 images. However, in the future, I think I will break the field down into groups of SNR ranges and the old standard of splitting before and after meridian flip. I get more consistent photometry that way.
400 is probably good to discourage the submissions of noisy unstacked data taken every 10 seconds all night long.
400 is good for now, I'll just make adjustments when I see the dreaded " file truncated ".
To further reduce the number of lines, I could stack 100 images just to declutter or go after the stars that are ordinarily to dim. This works for long period stars. But my studies indicate that, generally, for single image SN of 15 to 40, stacking 20 images marks the end of useful improvement from stacking. For SN above 40, 7 images is a good stack of images from my system.
This, for dim stars in images limited by unavoidable bright stars or bright variables having only dim comps in the FOV.
Ray
But I know why! It was coms here.
My wifi connection was weak. Didn't used to be, but now it was weak. I fixed it with a new router and a $28 GL-iNet AC1200 Travel Router set up to pick off the new wifi router and Cat6 cable it to my computer. Still not entirely reliable. I plan to hardwire everything to the router with a network switch. The new Wifi 6 router also has better software for error handling the weak connection.
Ray