Is there any VSX API documentation available?

Hello,

Is there an API to access VSX data ?
Yes I found several places abt. AAVSO API’s, but some from long time ago.
Is there a place with all recent API informations ?

Thanks and CS
Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Unfortunately, there is no officially sanctioned API, so the only documentation exists on the forums.

Please let us know if you are building an application that relies on VSX because we will be doing a ground-up rewrite of the software in 2025. Unless we hear from a number of developers, we probably won’t create a backwards compatible API.

Brian

Hi Brian,

I only want to do simple VSX queries like
https://www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=query.votable&ident=V615+VUL
and get at least RA/DEC. VSX is IMHO a very important database and if there is a reliable and permanent data format for the query then that would be very nice.

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

If you are just looking for positions of named stars, I might suggest using the SIMBAD module built in to Astropy’s astroquery.

Brian

Hi Brian,

yes SIMBAD query is already used, but IMHO the complete content of AAVSO VSX is not, at least not with the same names and at the same time, to be found in SIMBAD. An example is V615 VUL.

Thomas

Thomas,

In addition to the copy at HQ, we also push VSX to Vizier on a weekly basis. The catalog can be found here:

Brian

Hi Brian,

yes, but if I search in VizieR B/vsx/vsx catalog using Name (Variable star identifier) V615 VUL or also V615 *VUL, I get no result, but direct VSX query provides a result ?

Thomas

Hi, with 3-digit “vnnn” format you need to include a zero at the start - so search for V0615 Vul.
Also, Vizier contains a facility to use SQL queries as well as their native DB language.

Thank you, yes V0615 *VUL is ok now. So best way to query is using the standard VizieR database interfaces.

Well yes, you can, but if you want more control (and know a bit of coding) you can use a bit of SQL via the Vizier interface. When we make sequences (I am in the AAVSO sequence team) we do use the ‘simple’ method of querying a given survey, ticking the boxes we want but it is possible - for example - to ask for only variables that have a minimum amplitude of 0.5m in visual via the SQL method, and you cant do something like this using the simple method. Depends what you want!