The easiest way to plot ZTF observations in Peranso is through the Internet ZTF light curve plotting, which does not require you to download ZTF files. 


The section below describes how to import observations from a ZTF text file.


You can download files with ZTF observations from the Lasair Transients and Variables website, using their Cone Search. Enter the coordinates of the variable star or the ZTF ID. Then press the Run Cone Search button. If a corresponding ZTF object has been found, it will be displayed just under the Run Cone Search button. Click on the ZTF ID  to bring up a new web page with the light curve of the star. Click on the link in the "Information on this webpage also available as JSON". It will display a new web page. You can save the contents of that web page to a text file and subsequently import the file in Peranso. This proceeds as follows:


  1. Select Open in the File menu (or click on  in the Desktop Toolbar) to display the File Open box. 


  1. Navigate to the Peranso folder, which contains the ZTF text file. If you don't see the file in the file selector, make sure that the file type selector in the lower right corner of the file selector either shows All files (*.*) or ZTF (*.txt). Select the file and click the Open button. In this tutorial, we already included an example ZTF Lasair text file, which you will find in the Tutorials 12 folder. Open the file ZTF_Lasair_ZTF18abomvcg.txt.


  1. This loads the contents of the file and creates an Observations Window (ObsWin). 



  2. For more information about ZTF Lasair light curves we refer to the One-step plotting of a ZTF light curve tutorial.

  3. You can now save the Observations Window by selecting Save from the File menu. You can then directly open the Observations Window later on, without having to download the observations from the ZTF website.