AAVSO Exoplanet WebObs Users Guide
Revision 1.0
I. Introduction
The following are instructions on how to upload an exoplanet observation to the AAVSO Exoplanet Database using the Exoplanet Database WebObs page.
The following related documents are available at http://astrodennis.com.
1. "A Practical Guide to Exoplanet Observing"
2. "User Guide: AstroImageJ Macro for Creating an AAVSO Exoplanet Report"
Please note: please review the AAVSO Data Usage Guidlines.
II. Exoplanet Database WebObs Page
The main web page used to upload exoplanet data can be found here. It is
necessary for the user to have first logged in to the
main AAVSO web site with the user's AAVSO username and password in order to use the Exoplanet WebObs page.
An example of the Exoplanet WebObs page is seen in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Sample WebObs Page
User entries on the WebObs page consist of:
1. The user's site and equipment profiles associated with this observation. These profiles can be defined using the
following web page: Site & Equipment. The instructions that follow
assume that such profiles have been defined.
2. The location of one or more images, associated with this observation, that are to be uploaded to the database.
As a minimum, one image should be uploaded showing a plate solved star field that includes the target star and the final
set of comparison stars that were part of the exoplanet observation. Such images can be in any common picture format.
Do not include more than 10 files and the total size of all the files submitted must be less than 2Mb.
Figure 2 is an example of such an image:
Figure 2. Sample Comparison Star Image
3. An ASCII file that represents the "report" of the exoplanet observation should then be uploaded. The next section
contains a description of the data elements and valid ranges for each of the data elements in such a report.
III. Exoplanet Report
The exoplanet report format has two components: parameters and data, where the latter represents a series of measurements
taken during the time of the observation. Appendix A contains a sample report. Each component of the report file is discussed in detail below.
A. Parameters
The Parameters are specified at the top of the file and are used to describe the measurement data that follows.
Parameters must begin with a pound sign (#) at the start of the line. There are a number of specific parameters that are
required at the top of the file. Personal comments may also be added as long as they follow a pound sign (#). These miscellaneous comments
will be ignored by the WebObs software and not loaded into the database. However, they will be retained when the complete
file is stored in the AAVSO permanent archives. The format of the parameters is case sensitive, as shown in the example in Appendix A.
*Required parameters are:
Note that the data is meant to be raw data, without the detrend series applied. The rationale is that you provide the detrend data that you found useful in your analysis of the transit. But other people might have different models, that will apply the detrend data differently. This db is meant to provide raw data for their own analysis.
Appendix A: Sample Exoplanet Report ready for submission
#TYPE=EXOPLANET
#OBSCODE=CDEC
#SOFTWARE=AstroImageJ
#DELIM=,
#DATE_TYPE=BJD_TDB
#OBSTYPE=CCD
#STAR_NAME=Wasp-12
#EXOPLANET_NAME=Wasp-12b
#BINNING=2x2
#EXPOSURE_TIME=45
#FILTER=V
#DETREND_PARAMETERS=Airmass
#MEASUREMENT_TYPE=Rnflux
#SECONDARY_OBSCODES=CDEC1,CDEC2
#PRIORS=Period=1.09142,R*=1.63,u1=0.391,u2=0.3027
#RESULTS=Depth=0.0128,a/R*=3.2165.Tc=24557393.601332
#NOTES=Seeing was very good, no known systematics
# DATE DIFF MERR DETREND_1 DETREND_2 DETREND_3 DETREND_4
2457393.50269,0.515620,0.001884,1.867946,n/a,n/a,n/a
2457393.50327,0.508506,0.001858,1.859892,n/a,n/a,n/a
2457393.50384,0.508466,0.001848,1.851973,n/a,n/a,n/a
2457393.50442,0.515412,0.001864,1.844246,n/a,n/a,n/a
2457393.50500,0.512654,0.001854,1.836449,n/a,n/a,n/a
2457393.50557,0.510856,0.001856,1.828740,n/a,n/a,n/a
Appendix B: List of Standard AAVSO Filter Names
The complete reference list is available at: https://www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=api.bands
Here is a short list of the more likely filters to use: