Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Mon, 04/23/2012 - 21:55

Since there doesn’t seem to be a searchable archive for the AAVSO forums I will have to ask the dumb question first hand – sorry about this.

I’m not utilizing the AAVSO light curve generator correctly. How do I configure the LCG to get a complete plot of a curve?

When I plot a light curve I get observation data points (magnitude/date) for whatever range I had selected at the time. Not what I was hoping for although I can see this would be helpful if you are trying to fill in the gaps. I really want to see the full transit plotted. Otherwise, how do I know if a variable has a complete curve defined or not? I do have an ephemeris and have imaged a RW Com supposedly for one complete transit; I have not attempted to plot the data as yet, but I did created an animation and can clearly see RW Com pulsating brilliantly.

Thanks -Scott

lcg range

Hi, Scott. The LCG requires that you put in a start and an end date for the light curve. It does not have the ability to automatically select a full cycle of a variable star. So what you have to do is plot a range that is longer than what you suspect the cycle to be. And then, based on the results, you can modify it to make it longer or shorter. Basically, it's trial and error. If that is too tedious for you, you may want to try our VStar software. Since it is java-based, you can use your mouse to zoom in and out on a light curve. It's a much faster way to look at a light curve for which you don't know the specific start and end dates.

Does this help?

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Hi Aaron, I did try extending

Hi Aaron, I did try extending the date but I guess I missed it anyway. Thanks for the tip, I will try VStar. 

-Scott