Happy to announce the latest version of MetroPSF, 0.15. Lots of new stuff:
• Aperture photometry.
This is similar to common aperture photometry algorithms found in other software except that a 2D model of the background is subtracted from the image, so sky annuli are not used.
• AAVSO report generation.
MetroPSF can now generate AAVSO-compatible report files.
• Automatic reporting on all VSX sources in the image.
MetroPSF can generate reports on all VSX sources found in the image. It cycles through each VSX variable and builds a report file. Although I would not recommend to do automatic reports and submit them blindly (unless you know what exactly you are doing) this is helpful when you need to process multiple FITS files to create a report on a single object or multiple objects with, say, similar magnitudes.
• Batch processing of all FITS files in a folder.
Now it is possible to do photometric series, as MetroPSF can process multiple FITS files in a folder at once…
• Light curve generation from BAA reports.
…and display a light curve from all the report files generated.
• Added ability to remove outliers from the fit – by ensemble limit and maximum separation.
Much more precise photometry, as you can set it up to automatically exclude comparison stars farther than R arcseconds from the target, or that are not fitting well into the comparison ensemble, e.g. limit ensemble to N stars.
Convenience changes:
• Reporting number of ensemble stars on the linear regression fit plot.
• Object name in the left panel is now automatically set from VSX catalog for matching sources.
• Display next VSX source.
Can easily cycle through all known variables in your image.
• Mouse click now reports time in ISO UTC format along with photometry result.
To copy-paste in forums and discussions.
Other changes:
• Increased Astrometry.Net default solve timeout from 120 to 360 s.
• Linear regression fit error is now based on standard deviation.
• MetroPSF now writes a log to metropsf.log.
• Astrometry.net URL and API key setting in the interface.
• PSF fitting algorithm setting.
• FITS crop option.
Latest manual: http://trafyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/metropsf.pdf
MetroPSF program and manual: http://trafyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/metropsf-0.15.zip
Max