Bright Star Monitor Data Base Up

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thu, 10/25/2012 - 19:02

I just logged onto the Home page, and saw the BSM database is up.  I downloaded 900 days of data on U Ori, plotted a light curve---wow.  Its way cool, as the young folks say.  Check it out.  Look up you favorite bright star.

 

I suspect that the LCG will be hooked up to BSM Database in the future. (Hint)

 

Gary Walker, WGR

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Very nicely realized! What a

Very nicely realized! What a great additional resource!

Am I correct in assuming that the VStar format means the production of a comma-separated value file?

Cheers,

Doug

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Vstar format

Hi Doug,

Yes, the Vstar format is a csv file with RHJD, Vmag, Verr on each line

You just load it into Vstar using the input local file option.  It is much clumsier than your Vstar plug-in, but offers some generality.  We obviously haven't settled on the best way to access this database, so multiple methods are welcomed!

Arne

BSM database

Hi Arne,

Great to see the BSM database released. Is the BSM South data included in V1.0?

Sky coverage is not complete so it is a bit of a guessing game to find which variables are in the database. A list of included variables would help (or perhaps a zoomable map showing imaged fields? Admittedly this would be a major task and isn't going to happen anytime soon).

Also, when searching large areas around a RA/DEC position it would be very useful to have some identifier for each star, e.g. HD number. Actually that would be very useful for SeqPlot as well.

Am I right in assuming SeqPlot now uses this database (amongst many others)? My interest is in finding suitable comp stars for wide field DLSR photometry of bright stars so SeqPlot is much more convenient than trolling through the BSM database directly.

This new resource will be a great help. How often do you anticipate new releases? Cheers,

Mark

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Hi Mark,

I am pretty sure

Hi Mark,

I am pretty sure that there is a list or spreadsheet of target fields (to date) that could be made available. Perhaps someone can take it and produce a .kml file and/or otherwise make that information more user-friendly! Just suggesting a way to harness the energy of interested parties in improving the resource! :)

 

Cheers,

Doug

Affiliation
Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSAU)
Hi Arne

Apart from the

Hi Arne

Apart from the plugin Doug and I have developed, as another option, perhaps consideration could be given to generating AAVSO upload format files via the BSM web page since there's a VStar plugin that will read these files.

Regards,

David

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
BSM-south

Hi Mark,

BSM-south is NOT included in release V1.0.  In fact, only about half of the available BSM-north photometry is included.  We expect to add BSM-south before the end of the year.  As we update the database, we'll increment the version number.

Even though BSM covers several hundred fields, each field is only 3 square degrees.  So the database only contains a few thousand degrees of sky.  I agree that finding what fields are covered is a challenge!  I have listed in the past the primary mira and cepheid fields that we survey, but the rest is hit-and-miss.  I'll see if we can't either list the field centers, or create a map like APASS listing the covered areas.

The "means" version of this (that is, if the field was covered 10 times, only an average value) is included in Seqplot.  The epoch photometry database includes each individual observation, properly time-tagged.  This new database is good for looking at light curves, not for finding comparison stars.

I expect the EPD to be updated a couple of times by the end of the year, and then depending on how BSM-north ends up, updated about once per quarter thereafter.  Remember that there have been 6 telescopes in the network, and so we are planning on having one of these databases for each telescope (plus a combined version for all of the BSM systems).

I'm glad you are enjoying the first release!

Arne

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Miras in the BSM EPD

For those of you who want to play around with the epoch photometry database, here is a list of the Mira variables that are given priority targeting, and so therefore have more observations than the normal survey star.

Arne

---------------------------------------------------------

omi Cet
R Cam    S Boo    T CVn    U Aur    V Cam    W Cnc    X Aur    Y Dra    Z Oph
R CMi    S CMi    T Gem    U CMi    V CMi    W CrB    X Gem    Y Lib    Z Pup
R Cnc    S CrB    T Her    U Her    V Cnc    W Her    X Hya
R Com    S Gem    T Sgr    U Ori    V CrB    W Lyn    X Oph
R Crv    S Her    T UMi    U Ser    V Gem    W Lyr
R Cyg    S Hya    TT Mon    U UMi    V Mon
R Dra    S Lib        U Vir    V Oph
R Leo    S LMi
R LMi    S Pyx
R Lyn    S UMa
R Sgr    S UMi
R Uma    S Vir
RR Aql    SS Oph
RR Lib    ST Sgr
RR Oph
RS Her
RS Lib
RS Vir
RT Aql
RU Her
RU Hya
RU Lib
RY Oph
RZ Sco

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
vstar plugin

Hi David,

The web access does have a csv output, which works fine with VStar.  You query, save to a csv file, and then import that into VStar.  Currently, it just saves the Vmag magnitude and not B,V,R,I, but that is usually adequate for looking at lightcurves.

So there are two methods of supplying data to VStar!

Arne