VPHOT Upload V4.0.10

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Fri, 01/01/2021 - 18:55

All VPhot Users:

As most of you know, Flash has been deactivated as of 12/31/2020. Flash is the tool that VPhot uses to upload multiple images. Since the creation of VPhot it has been an amazingly quick algorithm. When I tried to upload multiple images this morning with Google Chrome, I confirmed that it is gone and the upload process exhibited a Flash I/O Error. ;-(

George Silvis has been working on an alternative that will permit users to continue uploading multiple images to their Available Image List. I am happy to report that it has been released in Version 4.0.10.

I do have a few comments that I need to make so as to tell you how to carry out the image upload process and what to expect:

1. As before, you need to click on the Upload link and then either quick upload or upload wizard.

2. When you click Quick Upload, you will be asked to select a telescope/click okay. You must then select one scope from the Telescope pull-down list as usual.

3. A "click or drop images here box" will appear.

4. You should simply highlight (click/shift click or other) your images from your own computer image folder and drag/drop them into this box (item 3).

5. The images will appear as relatively large icons in this box. They will subsequently upload in groups of five. The upload process will proceed with no action on your part. You will notice uploading bars on the image icons.

6. Note that this new upload process is slower than the previous Flash Upload process. Flash was an amazingly efficient tool!

7. As an example, I was able to upload 516 x 3.2 MB images in 32 minutes. I was able to upload 351 x 6.4 MB images in 90 minutes. My recollection indicates that the upload process may be up to 2x slower than with Flash. Note, that I do have a relatively fast fiberoptic internet connection.

8. So, this is what we will have to deal with for some time. I deal with this condition by dragging/dropping my daily images into VPhot and then going for a walk or conducting other activities.

9. All my images were transferred to the queue and finally ended up in my Available Image List. However, I need to note that occasionally some images encountered an upload failure. They will be indicated by partially hidden X and a faint circle. You can mouse over these remaining images in the upload box, write down their file name and try again.

10. George is working to add functionality to include some error messages to identify these upload failures in the future. 

So, this is the new upload procedure. I hope that you will find this new upload process manageable and acceptable. Keep us informed of any issues you run into. Clear error descriptions and screen shots are most helpful to correct any bugs.

We wish you continued success with VPhot.

Ken and George

Edit: PS: I just uploaded 657 x 6.4 MB images at about 1800 ET on 210101. I was able to upload them in 10 minutes, which is much faster than during my other previous three uploads. It would be useful for others to report their upload experiences in this thread.

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
New upload doesn't solve images?

I just tried uploading my first batch since flash went away. Nothing has changed on my end but all failed to be solved due to a pinpoint error:

TX Tri_V_2x2_90s_20210105_0135.FIT1/5/2021 10:43:20 PMPinPoint Error

I selected the correct telescope and I dragged a couple randomly into my Maxim with PinPoint lite and they solved with no issues.

Anyone else seeing this?

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Upload pinpoint errors

Pinpoint is failing because VPhot is not able to match the telescope reference in the file to that in the telescope profile. Without that link then the wrong plate scale is given to PinPoint and the solution fails.

There appears to be a confusion over that telescope reference.

The DisplayName in your telescope profile is "AT12RCT2x2" and the SystemName is "AT12RCT - SBIG STF-8300M - 2x2"

VPhot is looking for the FITS header key TELESCOP=AT12RCT - SBIG STF-8300M - 2x2

It looks like the FITS file is using the DisplayName.

George
VPhot@gasilvis.net

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
FTP upload

Hi

I got access to my images by mapping a folder to the ftp drive. Is it possible to put my images in ftp and access from VPhot?

Gabriel

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
FTP

By access to your images I take it that you are accessing ftp://occam.aavso.org/aavsonet/ngca directory to get the AAVSOnet images for your proposals. Very cool and the best way to deal with the ftp repository.

As part of your AAVSOnet proposal you can have your images sent directly to VPhot. As I see you have for proposal 164.

Is it possible to establish a linked folder to VPhot so that you could send files by just dropping them into a local network linked folder? Maybe. I'm looking into the security issues with that, whether it can be done anonymously or if we would have to issue and manage account names and passwords.We have a number of users that upload hundreds of images a day to VPhot and this mechanism would make life simpler.

George

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Security issues

Yes, it doesn't allow me to do it. Some tweaks to the software should be made. 

Gabriel 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
VPhot Image Upload Recommendations

VPhot Image Upload Users:

This post results from conversations with three power users, i.e., those users who upload all their own images (~500 per night) for processing in VPhot.

As you have noticed, a new drag and drop upload procedure has been created in VPhot to address the need for a multiple-image upload tool after the demise of Flash.

This new procedure exhibits large image icons in the upload box. They are not quite as legible as the historical upload image list BUT during testing it was discovered that reverting to a simpler image name format caused significant unanticipated code failures. In the interest of getting a workable upload scheme running when Flash usage ended, this large icon scheme was pushed out in V4.0.10.

Several power users have discovered that although the multiple-image upload drag and drop procedure works well most of the time, it poses a problem when the upload fails. Specifically, it is difficult to identify when and where the failure has occurred. Thus, it is difficult to restart the upload of the failed images.

I have made a few observations during my most recent six large uploads:

  1. After you “drop” the images into the upload box, you will note that the images are uploaded in groups of 5 images.
  2. When the upload process fails, the failed images are paused, and they exhibit a partially hidden x and a faint circular disk and a partial progress bar.
  3. When I did get failed images, they generally seemed to appear in the first set that was uploaded.
  4. Despite this occurrence, the upload process typically proceeds for all the other images.
  5. At the end of the upload process, the successful images disappear but the failed image icons remain.
  6. My recent uploads have been faster than I recall with Flash. It is also apparent that my internet upload (Verizon Fios) can sometimes have a significant speed variation.  ;-(

I have a few recommendations that may help facilitate an efficient process to upload large numbers of images (e.g., 500):

  1. DO NOT STOP the upload when you get some failed images. Let the process finish. This may take tens of minutes. Obviously, if most of the image groups (five images each) fail, you may need to reconsider this recommendation. To date, I have had uploads with one or two groups of failed images AND uploads with no failures.
  2. After the upload finishes and all images (except failed images) disappear, look at the failed image icons.
  3. In order to identify the remaining failed images, move your cursor over the lower part of the icon where you should find the name of the failed image. Write this name down. There will typically be five failed images in a group(s), so you need to note the names of all five. Occasionally, there may be another group of five images. If you have many failed images, my recommendation will not be useful since it becomes too tedious and impractical. This is not as easy as the old upload viewing scheme BUT, the alternative is one image upload at a time.
  4. Restart the upload process from the beginning and grab and drop the previously failed images into the upload box. Let them run through the process. This usually works?

Please give this process a try. Reply to this thread with your detailed findings. Good Luck!

Ken

Affiliation
Variable Stars South (VSS)
Uploads

Thanks Ken.

I have a very slow upload speed and found that the flash method crashed regularly so always used the non flash upload. I also routinely put each stars image into a zip folder and upload the zip file. This seems to be working well with the new system.

Terry

Affiliation
Svensk Amator Astronomisk Forening, variabelsektionen (Sweden) (SAAF)
Confirm that your recommendations work well for me

Ken, 

Thanks for this - both for acknowledging the issues and suggesting ways to handle them! Yesterday, uploading 300+ images, I had multiple failures, but following your suggested process made it work nicely in the end. Particularly realizing that hovering the cursor over the "failed" symbol gave the file name made it easier to redo those failed only. 

Then there was an issue of uploaded images "disappearing" (not turning up in my image list) but there is a separate thread for that. 

Magnus

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Upload failed

My images upload, but don't show up in the images list.  These were my first upload attempts since the new VPhot version came out.

As a single example, I used the upload wizard which showed everything was okay.  When I uploaded that image (dragged and dropped from my computer desktop into the upload box) everything seemed to proceed normally.  The upload for this single image seemed to be at least as fast as the former Flash uploads, but the image doesn't appear in my images list. (The queue was empty.)  I tried this with several other stored image.  All of these had worked fine with earlier versions of VPhot, but not now.

I emailed you and attached one of the images that didn't appear in the list after upload.

Phil

 

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
my bad

George,

It was my error.  I just forwarded to you the email I send to Ken about this, a silly mistake concerning the file names.

With that out of the way I'd have to say I like the new VPhot.  The image upload was simple and fast, and I really like the new feature that takes me back from the image display page to the same place I left in the available images list.  That saves a lot of repeated scolling. 

Phil