Hello dear Vstar users,
I was wondering if there was any possibility to colorize the observations of different observers/origin in an unique LC.
Obscode AAA = Blue
Obscode BBBB = Yellow
Obscode CCC = Red
./…
Any advance will be greatly appreciated,
Chris
I like to plot just my data in BVI, but they all are plotted red.
Is there a way, so that when I plot just my BVI data, it is plotted in blue, green, and red?
So View/ Simple Filter/ ObsCode_equal to_TRE would plot 3 light curves in 3 colors.
It would also be nice to plot fits to just my 3 filters in 3 colors.
Ray
Ray,
There would be many applications if we could easily plot in 3, 4 or more colors. I already tried using simple filters equal to, but did’nt get any results. Or only two colors plots.
Don’t know how to do this.
Maybe when creating series, with color assignations to the different series ? But I could not find a docummentation on this, and it didn’t work.
I found a way using Python/Matplotlib, but it would be easier to get the result in Vstar, for sure.
Christophe
Hi Chris and Ray (but see my comment below)
Apologies for the delay.
Yes, there is a way to do this. Currently, it requires the following steps:
See also Filtering Observations in the VStar user manual.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have further questions.
Ray, I’m not sure whether this also addresses your BVI request. Happy to respond further re: this, so feel free to follow up on that here.
David
I would like to filter just my BVI, then plot all three on the same plot in three colors.
ObsCode = TRE
Band = Johnson B
gives me a cyan B light curve and I can go change the color as you say. But I cannot find a way to plot all three on the same plot with three colors except by including everyone’s BVI data.
I would like ObsCode = TRE plotted in three colors when I select filtered from plot control.
Is there a way to export filtered data as a table that includes filter, Also export fits and residuals? Also export the data from a phase plot? Once exported, I can easily change series colors in spreadsheets or Python plots and make publishable plots.
Thanks for your guidance
Ray
Hi Ray
I’m thinking about approaches here. I’d like to reason over a concrete dataset. Can you suggest an example JD range from AID in which you have submitted BVI data?
David
Hello David,
I follow the explanations you detailed in your previous mail, and it works ! Thanks for that.
Maybe a typo here 
Open the Plot Control dialog via the View menu or toolbar and deselect just the user-defined series you just created to view them in the plot and observation list.
You probably mean deselect all but the user-defined series ? This was that way it worked for me. I had to uncheck the “unspecified” and “filtered” series, and then select the user-defined series.
This is quite a long process, however.
I noticed that, if there is a dominant serie in a phase plot, for example, the data points of the minor series totally disappeared behind the data points of the dominant serie. Is there any mean to force the drawing of the dominant serie first, then to draw the minor series in front of the dominant serie ?
Or maybe to draw only very small data points, so as all points remains visible ?
Sorry, my english is very imperfect.
Thank you for the help, David.
Clear skies,
Christophe
Hi Christophe
There’s a checkbox in the Plot Control dialog that reverses series plot order. That can help.
Sometimes you just have to select only the series of interest though, which if only user defined should be ok.
David
Hi Ray
There are a few things here. One is the BVI 3 colour display. Another is the idea of capturing the current state of analysis (phase plots, modelling etc), eg via a project vs piecemeal saving of obs list (potentially filtered), model, residual lists etc.
The latter is something that’s been thought about and has been on the list for quite awhile. Will revisit.
The first could be a standalone feature (eg plugin).
David
Hi David
Thanks for the response.
I was trying to do a phase plot of AD Gem in BVI from 2460000 to now.
I am wanting to show just my data which is easy to do with a filter for just one observer, then deselecting all the BVI data.
But then the plot shows all Bands in cyan rather than R, G, B.
Also, How do I download or export the phase vs magnitude data, and download or export the fit to a phase plot with its residauls?
Ray
Ray,
Note of caution: I don’t know if the following applies to the simultaneous plots of your RGB data. It describes what you see if data from only one filter is displayed. You may therefore know the following already.
Just above the plot window there are tabs Plot, Observations, …, Residuals.
After displaying the plot you wish to see, click the Observations tab.
A table of the data is displayed.
Click File > Save and select your destination folder of choice. The data is saved as a .csv file.
Note that, for phase plots, the plot is of two cycles, but the data in the table in the Observations tab is for one cycle only, and thus if you save, only one cycle is saved. If you import that into a spreadsheet, create two more columns adjacent to the (say) phase and magnitude columns, add 1.0 to the phase in one of the new columns, and simply copy the mag column across to the new column. You can then copy the new columns and paste them below the original (one phase) data.
If you click the residuals tab after fitting a polynomial function to a plot, you will see a table that includes the residuals. This can be saved in the same way. Is that what you need?
Roy
Thanks Roy
That solved my “save the fit and residuals to .csv” so I can plot it.
As for the data it can be saved to .csv the same way, and it does select the filtered if i select Regular Expression. I may still need to get fancy with the spread sheet to separate the Johnsons and Cousins. Trying to get Create Selection Filter to do something next. Also looking for Vela filter syntax. Progress
Ray
Found the Vela.G4.pdf
This does what the simple filter for Obscode .EQ. TRE does:
(band = “Johnson V” and obscode = “TRE” or band = “Johnson B” and obscode = “TRE” or band = “Cousins I” and obscode = “TRE”)
But all in the same color- cyan.
Ray,
It has just occurred to me. If you plot your BVI light curves in VStar from data you have submitted to the AID (New Star from AAVSO Database), you can select the filters you wish to plot, and they should appear in different colours. The dialogue in which you enter what data you wish to see includes the option of entering an observer code or codes, thus limiting the display to your data only.
Roy
Thanks Roy!
That did it. I can actually apply an Observer filter without it plotting everything in cyan.
I can make it two observers with a comma like in DQ Tau.
Next, I’ll select only transformed data from one to four observers. Putting Transformed into the VeLa box below observer box does the trick.
Now I have another way to clean up my data.
Thanks again Roy!
Ray
This shorter expression is also equivalent:
(band = “Johnson V” or band = “Johnson B” or band = “Cousins I”) and observer_code = “TRE”
Great to see people helping one another!
Out of interest Ray, was that DQ Tau you added a transformed VeLa expression to when loading from AID? Was the expression you used something like: transformed = true along with TRE in the Observers box?
I’m just interested to see how VeLa is being used.
David
I just try expressions until I stumble on one that seems to work.
I have not been able to find much examples yet and the syntax documentation that I can find is to cryptic for a non-professional programmer to decipher. I just put “Transformed” in the Vela box:
For example, I have no way of knowing it the observer box should say TRE transformed = true
or if it should say
TRE, transformed=true
or maybe
obscode = “TRE” and transformed = “true”.
If I put transformed = true in both the boxes, it says no observations found.
I found that I could play with the Tools/ run script a bit, but quickly ran into the syntax problem. Kind of like running C++ with no documentation and no examples. A powerful tool, but not helpful if I don’t know where to put the pipes and commas.
Then I discovered that transformed = false doesn’t work.
Hi Ray
I understand your confusion and frustration.
First, specifically re: the transformed question, the underlying value from AID is Boolean but is stored as “yes” or “no” in VStar’s observation objects and appears in this way in the observation list and details dialog.
Asking the questions:
should ideally be equivalent to: transformed = “yes”, but this is not the case currently.
So, at this point in time, please use: transformed = “yes”
I found that I had to select a larger time range to see observations with obs code TRE (I selected All Times) but then it worked. Try transformed = “no” for comparison.
I’ve captured this (and more) here: Improvements to VeLa observation filters · Issue #478 · AAVSO/VStar · GitHub
Note that the Observer Codes text box is only for observer code as opposed to VeLa expressions. One could instead have nothing in the Observer Codes box and have this VeLa Filter expression:
observer_code = “TRE” and transformed = “yes”
In relation to the VeLa language itself, I accept that the documentation is still fairly light: https://github.com/AAVSO/VStar/wiki/VeLa.
I will improve this documentation over time including a section that elaborates on the syntax and semantics of the language in addition to the current overview, grammar, examples, and intrinsic function (standard library) list. Further suggestions are welcome.
David
