VarStarSearch v2.0 AAVSO Variable Star Database Search Utility ----- PLEASE DO NOT MODIFY THE FOLLOWING NOTICE ----- Original 2.0 version © 2007 by Dale E. Lehman. This software is open-source freeware. Permission is granted to modify this software and distribute modified or unmodified copies as freeware. No commercial use of this software is to be made without express written consent from the author. VarStarSearch is provided "as is" and the author assumes no liability for damages resulting from its installation or use. ----------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS: 1. What's New 2. Installing VarStarSearch 3. Starting VarStarSearch 4. The AAVSO Variable Star Database 5. Search Features 6. Setting Preferences 7. Variable Star Details 8. Building an Observing List 9. Open Source Software and Support ----------------------------------------------------- 1. What's New [NOTE: Users of a prior version of VarStarSearch, please read the note in section 3 regarding the variable star database.] With version 2.0, VarStarSearch has been recoded in Visual Basic 2005. As a result, Microsoft's ".NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package" must be installed. The VarStarSearch installer should install this for you if you don't already have it, but if not it can be downloaded from Microsoft's Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads). (Versions later than 2.0 should also work.) This version also introduces several helpful new Features: a. Variable star categories, which ease searching by auto-selecting groups of related variable star types. b. A right ascension month drop-down list that sets minimum and maximum RA values centered on the 15th of the selected month from two hours after sunset to midnight c. An on-screen link to variable star type descriptions d. The ability to display the AAVSO light curve for a variable star when viewing the star's details page. e. A larger display window, to show more variable star data without scrolling. These features are described in the relevant sections below. 2. Installing VarStarSearch VarStarSearch should run on all Windows PC platforms that support the .NET Framework, from Windows 98 through Windows XP. It has only been tested on a Windows XP platform. The Microsoft Excel interface for building observing lists has been tested on Excel 2003, but should work with most versions of Excel. Two packages are available for download: the installer package and the source code package. The installer package provides files necessary for installing and using VarStarSearch. The source code package provides all source code files and can be used for modifying, compiling, and running the software. Both packages are provided as compressed files. To install VarStarSearch from the installer package, uncompress the files to a working folder using a ZIP-compatible compression utility and run the program setup.exe. To use the source code package, you will need to have Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 installed on your computer. To install the source code package, uncompress the files to a working folder using a ZIP-compatible compression utility. You can then open the solution file VarStarSearch.sln using Visual Basic 2005. Note that the solution contains two projects: VarStarSearch, and VSSSetup (the deployment project). 3. Starting VarStarSearch The installer package will create a VarStarSearch folder on the Start menu under Programs. This folder will contain icons for VarStarSearch,this readme.txt file, and an uninstaller. Click on the VarStarSearch icon to start the program. The first time VarStarSearch is run on your computer, no database will be available. You will be prompted to download the variable star database from the AAVSO Web site. You must be connected to the Internet for this process to run successfully. However, you have the option of continuing without downloading the database. You might wish to do this if you have already downloaded the database for another purpose. If so, you can use the Preferences dialogue box (explained below) to locate the existing file. [NOTE: If you had a previous version of VarStarSearch installed, the new version will pick up its settings from the old version and use the same database. In some cases this may be what you want, but generally speaking it would be best to download a new copy of the database and store it in VarStarSearch 2.0's program folder.] 4. The AAVSO Variable Star Database As of this writing, the database used for VarStarSearch is found at: http://www.aavso.org/observing/charts/united.txt This file is the chart database used by the AAVSO's Web site software, NOT the validation file. It is similar to the validation file, but contains more information. All information provided by this file is available through VarStarSearch, including the charts themselves, which can be downloaded with VarStarSearch. It should be noted that VarStarSearch has no control over the quality of the data in the database. As of this writing, some formatting errors have been noted in some of the data. This can result in errors in the search results. VarStarSearch as originally written makes the assumption, however, that all data needs to be available for viewing, so it attempts to compensate for data formatting errors and unknown data formats. For the most part, results will be good, but users should be aware that some results returned from a search may not completely match the search criteria. Any stars for which major formatting problems are found will be loaded as an error list. This list can be viewed using the Display Errors button on the status bar. The search results display includes the following information about each selected star: - Designation (composed of the star's Right Ascension and Declination) - Name - Type - Magnitude Range - Period - Charts? (Y/N indicating whether or not AAVSO charts are available) Details can be displayed for each selected star, including the above information and the following additional information: - Spectrum - Comments - A list of available charts - A list of cross-reference charts - A list of AAVSO atlas charts All of this information is presented exactly as it appears in the AAVSO database. In addition, the details page can display the AAVSO light curve for the star. A web browser is embedded in the details page. Clicking the "Get Light Curve" button at the bottom of the page will make a call to the AAVSO web site and retrieve the light curve generator page for the selected star. Of course, you must be connected to the Internet for this to work. The displayed web page is fully-functional. You can click links to navigate the AAVSO web site, including to modify the light curve generator settings or to view quick look data for the star. Right-click in the browser to get a context menu containing "Back" and "Forward" commands if needed. The light curve feature can be customized to load automatically when the details page is displayed and to use your AAVSO observer code. See section 6 ("Setting Preferences") for further information. 5. Search Features When the program is first started, a list of stars meeting the default criteria (based on your preference settings) is displayed. This list can be modified by changing the search criteria. Two types of criteria can be adjusted to tailor the list of stars displayed for your observing interests: Location information and stellar properties information. The location information that can be adjusted includes the following: - Constellations to include - Minimum and maximum right ascension - Minimum and maximum declination The constellations list is derived from the database itself. If no items are selected in this list, all constellations will be included in the search. You can select a single constellation by clicking on its abbreviation. Multiple constellations can be selected by holding down the key while clicking on additional constellations. +clicking on a selected constellation will deselect it. To Select a range of constellations, click on the first one and hold down while clicking on the second one. Note that you can both select constellations AND set RA and declination limits. The software does NOT do any consistency checking. Thus, if you select UMA and a maximum declination of +20, you will not receive any results! You are responsible for making sure that your location settings make sense. The minimum declination setting must be less than the maximum declination setting. However, the minimum RA setting may be less than the maximum RA setting in order to allow "wrapping around" from 23:59 to 00:00. Selecting a month in the RA Month drop- down list will automatically set appropriate RA limits for that month. You can also manually enter RA limits as desired. By default, the RA limits will be set for the current month when the program is launched. The stellar properties information that can be adjusted includes the following: - Categories to include - Types to include - Maximum and minimum magnitudes (note that the maximum value must be numerically smaller than the minimum value) - Whether or not stars have AAVSO Charts Eight checkboxes are available for selecting variable star categories. Each category includes a number of types, as defined in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars(GCVS). Checking a category box will cause all associated types to be automatically selected in the type list. Unchecking a category box will cause all associated types to be automatically deselected in the type list. The types list is derived from the database itself. The types of some items in the database cannot be determined, but these stars can be viewed by selecting the last type in the list: [blank/error]. If no items are selected in this list, all types will be included in the search. You can select a single type by clicking on its abbreviation. Multiple types can be selected by holding down the key while clicking on additional types. +clicking on a selected type will deselect it. To Select a range of types, click on the first one and hold down while clicking on the second one. Note that you can both use the category checkboxes AND manually select types in the type list. You could, for example, check the Cataclysmic" category, which results in types N, NA, NB, NC, NL, NR, SN, SNI, UG, UGSS, UGSU, UGZ, and ZAND being selected. You could then manually deselect any of these types, and manually select additional types. After you change these settings, click the Display button to redisplay the search results based on the new settings. Because the list of types is long and many codes may not be familiar to you, a link to the GSCV web page containing descriptions of all variable star types has been included. You will find this link to the right of the types list. Simply click it and the description page will be loaded in your default web browser. 6. Setting Preferences The Preferences menu allows you to customize the default search criteria as well as a couple of other options. The following settings can be changed through this menu: - Database File: This is the location of the AAVSO database file on your local machine. You can type in the location or use the (...) button to search for the file. When you change this setting, the new location will be used to load the database upon closing the dialogue. - Database URL: This is the location of the AAVSO database file on the AAVSO Web site. It is used when downloading a new copy of the database. This setting should NOT be changed unless AAVSO moves the file to a new location on their Web site. - Minimum and maximum declination: Set this to limit search results to stars visible from your observing location. - Minimum and maximum magnitude: Set this to limit search results based on the capabilities of your observing equipment. - AAVSO Charts: Set this to limit results based on your chart availability preference. - Observing List: You can create observing lists in three formats. Plain text format creates a text file with one star per line of text and data items separated by spaces. Delimited format creates a text file with one star per line of text and data items separated by pipe characters (|). This can be useful for importing into spreadsheets or related software. Excel spreadsheet format creates a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with one star per row and data elements in separate cells. You must have Microsoft Excel installed on your PC in order to use this option. - Light Curve: These settings control the display of the light curve on the Details page. If you want VarStarSearch to automatically display a light curve whenever the Details page is opened, check the "Automatically display" check box. If not, leave this box unchecked. You will then have to click the "Get Light Curve" button on the Details page to load the light curve. (Leave this unchecked if you do not have a constant Internet connection.) You can also enter your AAVSO observer code here, if desired. If you enter your code, your observations will be highlighted on retrieved light curves. 7. Variable Star Details To view details for a star, click on the star in the list and then click the Details button, or double-click on the star in the list. The details dialogue will open, showing all data on the star as given in the AAVSO database. In the event that an error was detected in the star's data, an error comment will also be displayed. (As of the current version, these errors will all be related to problems in interpreting the magnitude range.) The AAVSO Charts list displays all of the charts files available from the AAVSO Web site. You can download a chart by double-clicking on its name in the list. You will be prompted to provide a name and location for saving the chart. You must be connected to the Internet to download chart files. If you set your preferences to automatically display light curves and you are connected to the Internet, the AAVSO light curve for the star will also be displayed. If you do not have your preferences set to automatically display light curves, you can display a light curve if desired by clicking the "Get Light Curve" button. 8. Building an Observing List You can build an observing list from the search results by selecting one or more stars, then clicking the Observing List button. Multiple selections can be made in the search results by using +click or +click as described above for the Constellations and Types lists. The type of observing list to be built is controlled by your Preferences setting. When you click the Observing List button, you will be prompted to provide a file name and location. You may provide a new file name, or use the name of an existing file. If you provide a new file name, a new observing list file will be created. If you provide the name of an existing file, your selections will be appended to the end of that file. 9. Open Source Software and Support VarStarSearch is provided as open-source software, meaning that the source code is freely available to anyone interested in viewing or modifying it. However, the author cannot be responsible for supporting modified versions of the program. VarStarSearch is also provided as freeware. The author will be happy to provide assistance in installing VarStarSearch and to answer questions about its use, but does not promise any specific level of support. Suggestions for enhancements and bug reports will be gratefully accepted, but the author makes no promise to provide upgrades or bug fixes. VarStarSearch is provided "as is" and the author assumes no liability for damages resulting from its installation or use. The author can be reached at: lehket@netscape.net