John Rachlin, Ph.D. and Mark McGettrick (co-founders)

Diatom Software LLCwww.DiatomSoftware.com

The International Variable Star Index (VSX) on the

iPhone

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Motivation

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GOAL: Create a generic framework for converting modest data sets (< 1 million records) into an app for the iOS platform (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) that would enable searching, sorting, and viewing of data (with data analysis capability to follow).

The Post-Genomic Era: Bioinformatics is a major scientific endeavor driving research in biomedical science and drug discovery.

The rise of survey astronomy: current and future wide-field surveys across the spectrum creating massive astronomical catalogues (and exciting opportunities for in silico discovery through data-mining).

The Conversion Process

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ReParse Datato “regularize”

SQLiteDataBase

Meta-Data(Column

Descriptors)

[data addObject:[[MDTMetaData alloc] initWithIdentifier:4 colname:@"ra" displayname:@"Right Ascension" coltype:NUMERIC description:@"Right Ascension (Epoch 2000)" values:nil precision:6 delimiter:' ' multivalued:NO filterable:YES sortable:YES displayable:YES layoutorder:4]];

API

Core DBGUI

AstronomyExtensions

The App

Filtering

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• Meta-data defines whether you can filter on a particular column, and how (Multi-Select, Numeric, Boolean)

• Number of hits is automatically updated

Sorting

• Sortable fields are defined in meta-data

• Ascending/Descending/Off

• Drag to reorder

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Viewing matches

• The summary table provides a sorted list of all matching variables

• Key information displayed: name, type, range, period, position

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Favorites

• Establish an observing program by selecting favorites

• Future: A gateway to recording observations

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Visibility: Astronomical Extensions

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Where to find me on a clear

night!

Future directions• Record observations with certain fields pre-populated for

greater accuracy: Julian date, chart number, AAVSO initials

• Data analysis reports, cross-correlation chart generation. E.g., plot period v. amplitude for all RRab type stars.

• Store finder charts (iPad recommended)

• Plot light curves or other features that leverage AAVSO APIs and web-services

• Alert notifications when a star is due to be observed. (User would indicate target observation frequency.)

• Red-light / night mode.

• Educational content to encourage the involvement of the next generation of variable star observers!

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Expected Release: November 2010Expected Price: $2 - $4

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When and How Much?