About APhoS

Amateur Photometric Survey

Tool for cataloguing astrophotometric data with the purpose of archiving variable star observations.

Application

Last updated 13.05.2022

The application parses and stores the csv data from the SIPS software. Its aim is to utilize the photometrical data from the observations. It persists stars along with its flux values, the data for a star can then be queried.

The tool is work in progress. Current version provides no cross-identification between the catalogues, so the advised catalogue to use is UCAC4.

Usage

The application provides the ability to upload the data and to query the data. To upload data an authentication with a Google account is required. After the first sign-in you will be asked to choose a username and a profile will be created. A description text field can be used to publish some information for other users.

File uploading

The application allows uploading photos from the SIPS software in form of csv files. Image below displays the required data to include. The mandatory fields: the columns and the time of the exposure are displayed in red. The columns with deviaton values are not mandatory. However, they are recommended to be included as they allow for deviation calculations for the light curves. CSV example

After the files are uploaded the app starts their processing. Progress bar will show its state. The page can be closed during the processing phase, the results of the whole process will then be available from the user profile.

Searching for stars

The search form allows for filtering based on Coordinates, Object name, Magnitude, Catalog along with the respective ID. The results are displayed as rows in a table, in case of a more results only the first 100 is shown.

Below is an example of a search based on the ID. To proceed click on the object's id and repeat the same process for a comparison object.

Fluxes presentation

Found fluxes are shown as follows:

Apertures select panel - different aperture to use for data from a specific night can bo chosen here. The magnitude is then calculated using specified apertures.
List of apertures - ap auto columns display apertures determined as best by the photometric software, to see the other available apertures click on show in the apertures column. These values can then be selected in the apertures select panel.
Saturated fluxes checkbox - some data might be missing a flux value because of saturation. The saturated data is hidden by default, use the checkbox to display it.
Uploaded by column - click on the username in a row of data to see the user profile of the uploader.
Button panel - consists of:
- Light curve button displays light curve graph of selected object with magnitude calculated from selected apertures. The graph allows for zooming in and moving to focus on a data from single night. Deviation bars from magnitude calculation can be displayed. In case of performance trouble turn off the deviation bars when manipulating with the graph.
- Users button brings up a component for filtering out data from specific users. To use it drag and drop the listed usernames. The drag and drop might not be functiong in some browsers, in that case use a double click to move the usernames.
- Download button The displayed data can be downloaded. Namely, the time of the flux exposure, its calculated magnitude and deviation. Available formats are simple text file or CSV file with or without initial metadata.

Project

This application was originally developed by Rastislav Kruták in 2021/22 as his bachelor's thesis in cooperation with Pavel Cagaš and Miloslav Zejda.

It was extended by Pavel Kinc in 2022/23 as his bachelor's thesis. The extension provides API described in OpenAPI document (see Swagger UI) and a Python client.

The application is hosted by Institute of Computer Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia, on behalf of Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, as part of the e-INFRA CZ infrastructure.

Runtime version: 2.1.5