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I notice ASTAP isn’t on the recommended list of tools for VS photometry. Is there a reason for that?
https://sourceforge.net/projects/astap-program/
I’ve been using it quite a lot recently and it’s a very comprehensive tool and really easy to use. And, as far as I can tell, accurate.
It outputs files in AAVSO format but unfortunately not BAA VSS (maybe an approach to Han to add this might be wortwhile?).
Does anyone else use it? Many of us may already use it for plate solving (eg in NINA) but it does far more than that.
MarkI don’t (yet) use ASTAP but thanks for drawing it to my attention. I will take a look.
Russ Laher’s Aperture Photometry Tool, APT, is my tool of choice. Written by a professional at the ZTF for professionals and amateurs alike it does a very good job very easily. It produces CSV format output which is easy to convert to a BAA-VSS spreadsheet. A script to do just that is available from me on request.
APT is available from https://aperturephotometry.org/ and there’s a Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_Photometry_Tool
A particularly nice feature of APT is that the apertures can be elliptical, so tracking errors can be tolerated better than with purely circular apertures.
For plate solving I use a local installation of astrometry.net with the Gaia DR2 catalogue.
Hi Mark,
There is no reason other than to appear on the list of photometry tools someone in the VSS needs to be successfully using it for photometry and submitting observations to the BAA online database. With a few tweaks to the AAVSO file format you can upload those files.
The reason for not adding more tools to the list and approaching developers is time. Running the photometry and spectroscopy databases are voluntary roles, so the list of tools is based on what members are using. I am happy to offer help and advice to anyone wishing to submit observations to the database.
Best wishes,
AndyThat’s great thanks. Well I definitely recommend it as a really nice tool that is easy to use.
Here’s a video showing how simple it is if anyone is interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99XxzmJPPPQ
MarkHi Mark,
For software to appear in the list on the BAA Photometry Database page, there needs to be a way for members to upload observation data files. Have you been able to do this with ASTAP or are you manually entering the observation data?
An explanation on how to convert the AAVSO file format into a format uploadable into the BAA database is given at this link.
https://britastro.org/photdb/help/BAA_Support_for_AAVSO_Extended_File_Format.pdf
Feel free to contact me offline or reply here if you would like any pointers on how to do this. I tested the modified AAVSO file format a while ago, but I am not sure if anyone is actually use this yet.
Best wishes,
Andy
BAAVSS Database SecretarySo far I’ve entered it manually. Next time I will try a modified AAVSO version to see how that looks. Doesn’t look very difficult to do.
ThanksI’ve been chatting to Han who wrote ASTAP and he’s created a modified version with an option to format the AAVSO export for BAA VSS use, extracting the extra header fields from the FITS header. I uploaded an entry for DO Dra and it seemed to go well. Could you check it out please and see if anything else is required?
The latest version of the installer is here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/astap-program/files/windows_installer/
Thanks
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