How to use the HARPS archive

I've almost got a new version ready with a few new features (binning, listing offsets, etc). I'm not home right now but when I get home, I will try to get it finished and upload a new version... as well as find a different file host that is less transitory.

Okay. New version - v2.4.

• Programme now lists offset values (one for each time the data has been normalised).
  
• Data can now be binned.
  
• Dataset can now be returned to its original state after being read (effectively undoes datapoint removals, binning, normalisations, etc). So now you don't have to re-read the data to start over.
  
• Fixed a problem where trying to modify non-existent datasets causes divide by zero errors and the subsequent collapse of the Universe.
  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sr28utt733fh9n0/HARPS_RV_Extract_v2.4.bat?m=

New version 2.5. Some rather minor tweaks.

• Can now produce .csv file.
  
• Offset values cleared if data is re-read.
  
• Fixed problem where programme attempted to draw preview images before any data was read.
  
• Improved preview images:
  - Spacing between datapoints and graph edge.
  - Error bars!
  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pr563jhkhbh5z72/HARPS_RV_Extract_v2.5.bat

ESO has changed the data access page for HARPS. Now you have to go to this page to download HARPS data, and the download products are a bit messy, with usable RV data mixed with other .fits files. I'm sure there's a better way to download HARPS data such that the only thing acquired is useful RV data, but I haven't yet bothered to find it.

This change (and dreadfully long extraction times) has motivated the writing of a new version of the HARPS RV Extract programme. This version cuts down even further on the amount of manual work on the user's part by allowing them to read the RV data directly from the compressed files within the .tar itself. I've had problems in the past with getting WinRAR to extract large numbers of .tar files to their own folders, so I figured I may as well bypass this step. With this version, you no longer need to extract .tar files to their own directory (though both methods of reading the data are available). It may be that not all downloaded .tar files have usable RV data in them. If this is the case, it will simply skip the file and leave a message in the status box informing you of the filename of the skipped .tar.

Another small change is that I've figured out multithreading in Windows Forms applications (learning this as I go along), so I threw in a status bar to allow the user to see the progress of the data reading. This is especially useful since reading from the .tar files does take some extra time, and one tends to find themselves wanting to poke the programme with a stick to see if it's still alive. Also, the CSV writing was fixed to include a new line after the header (d'oh!).

Simply drop the HARPS_RV_Extract_v2.6 into the same directory as the downloaded .tar files and run it.

Due credit: I've made extensive use of tar-cs but had to make some modifications to get it to work for this task.

Here's the file, I hope someone finds it useful.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gf42cv1eip1dxjp/HARPS_RV_Extract_v2.6.bat?dl=0