Re: [find_orb] Windows Find_Orb as a command line tool

Jost Jahn Oct 11 4:43 AM

Hi Bill,

may it be possible to create also a 32 bit Version? I work for some reasons also on a Windows XP 32-bit system. At moment I have only a 32-bit from 2013 for fo.exe and that can't creat the JSON files.

Thanks!

Jost

On 11.10.2019 05:09, Bill Gray pluto@... [find_orb] wrote:
>  
>
> Hi Gajowy,
>
> It's well past time that I documented this! As it happens,
> I _have_ "sort of" documented it; I got an inquiry about
> this subject via private e-mail about half a year ago.
> Much of what follows is recycled (with some updates) from
> what I wrote back then.
>
> The following documentation is not exactly complete. But
> it ought to get you up and going... and may get _me_ up and
> going for actually documenting this on my Web site.
>
> -- Bill
>
> -------------- Command-line Find_Orb on Windows ---------
>
> There has been a command-line version running under Linux (or
> *BSD or OS/X) for some years now. It's the basic engine behind
> my on-line NEOCP page at
>
> https://www.projectpluto.com/neocp2/summary.htm
>
> I have a script on the server which, once an hour, runs
> the command-line version of Find_Orb (known as 'fo') to generate
> pseudo-MPECs for everything currently on NEOCP.
>
> People running 'fo' on non-Windows platforms download the
> source code and compile it. This is not something your average
> Windows user wants to have to do. It can, of course, be done;
> Daniel Parrott has provided a nice guide to doing so with
> Microsoft Visual Studio at
>
> https://www.projectpluto.com/temp/build_instructions.pdf
>
> But I've provided a pre-built 'fo.exe', and the rest of
> this will assume you'll just use that.
>
> You should first have the "traditional" Windows GUI Find_Orb
> set up and running to your satisfaction. (Which you probably
> do.) The command-line Windows Find_Orb will piggyback off that,
> borrowing settings and files for things such as the JPL ephemerides,
> default ephemeris settings, and so forth. If you've set up GUI
> Find_Orb to generate ephemerides that contain radial velocities,
> then (at least by default) the command-line Find_Orb will use
> that setting as well.
>
> Next, download the ZIPped executable :
>
> https://www.projectpluto.com/temp/fo.zip
>
> (about 599 KBytes) and unZIP its contents into the folder
> containing the "traditional" Windows GUI Find_Orb. You're then
> ready to run fo.exe from a command line. You can just run
>
> fo (filename)
>
> where 'filename' contains the astrometry in question. I
> just ran it on a file with four new objects from NEOCP. On
> the screen, I got an "executive summary", giving me a
> little information about each object :
>
> Processing 4 objects
> 1: C15C4C2; a=1.099, q=0.974, e=0.113, i=9 H=26.5 MOID 0.031 23 obs; 2019 Oct. 8-10
> 2: P10SBuQ; a=2.064, q=1.136, e=0.449, i=3 H=24.3 MOID 0.138 8 obs; 2019 Oct. 7-9 (41.2 hr)
> 3: P10SBxr; a=1.821, q=1.678, e=0.079, i=22 H=20.5 8 obs; 2019 Oct. 7-9 (43.0 hr)
> 4: P10SyjK; a=2.389, q=1.590, e=0.335, i=1 H=20.6 14 obs; 2019 Sept. 25-Oct. 10
>
> Meanwhile, the following files were made :
>
> 'mpc_fmt.txt' with elements for each object, in the MPCORB
> format. (Which means anything parabolic or hyperbolic would have
> to be skipped, and long-period orbits would have poor precision.)
>
> 'total.json', which has elements, MOIDs, observations, and
> residuals for each object.
>
> 'elements.txt', which has orbital elements in the MPC eight-line
> format, plus some additional data (the state vector and MOID data
> you get when you click on the orbital elements window in GUI Find_Orb.)
>
> Ephemerides are a little trickier. If you run
>
> fo (filename) -e (ephemeris filename)
>
> you'll get, in addition to the output described above, an
> ephemeris file... giving you ephems for the last object only. As
> described above, it'll "borrow" whatever ephemeris settings you
> had in GUI Find_Orb.
>
> There is a twist to this : if you select 'computer friendly' output,
> then 'total.json' will contain ephemerides for each object. So you
> _can_ actually get ephemerides for each object... though I realize
> that not everybody is a fan of the JSON format.
>
> It is possible to set the ephemeris start date/time, step
> size, and number of steps on the command line. For example,
>
> fo (filename) (other options) "EPHEM_START=2019 Jan 13 10:00" "EPHEM_STEPS=40 1h"
>
> would cause the ephemerides to start at that time, and give
> you 40 entries with a one-hour spacing. The start date/time has
> the same wide degree of flexibility as other date inputs in Find_Orb.
>
> The following command-line options are available :
>
> -e (filename) Direct the ephemeris output to that filename.
> -E (options) Reset quantities output to ephemerides. If you
> skip this, you'll just get whatever output options were
> set the last time you ran Find_Orb, so it may be more
> convenient just to run that program and generate an example
> of the sort of output you want. The quantities can be any
> combination of :
>
> 3 Alt/az output
> 4 Radial velocity
> 5 Apparent angular motion (default is total motion and PA)
> 6 Phase angle
> 8 Ground track (lat/lon/alt)
> 9 When combined with 5, show separate RA/dec motions
> 10 Round to nearest step. If the ephem starts at 03:14:15.9
> and the step size is one minute, the first output will
> be for 03:14.
> 11 Phase angle bisector
> 12 Heliocentric ecliptic lat/lon
> 13 Topocentric ecliptic lat/lon
> 14 Visibility indicator (sun/moon/twilight).
> 15 Suppress unobservable ephemeris data (below horizon, sunlit)
> 16 Show ephemeris uncertainties
> 17 Computer-friendly output. Dates are in JD, RA/dec in decimal
> degrees, etc. Distances are always in AU, instead of
> switching to km for close objects. And so on.
> 18 Output MOIDs for eight planets. Helpful to show how the MOID
> for a given planet changes with time.
> 19 Space velocity (i.e., total speed of the object relative to
> the observer, not just the radial component given by 4)
> 20 Lunar elongation
> 21 _Don't_ show RA/dec
> 22 _Don't_ show distance between observer and target
> 23 _Don't_ show distance between object and sun
> 24 _Don't_ show elongation from the sun
> 25 Show sun's altitude
> 26 Show sun's azimuth
> 27 Show moon's altitude
> 28 Show moon's azimuth
>
> You can combine these in a reasonably straightforward way; for example,
> to tell fo to show alt/az, phase angle, heliocentric and topocentric
> ecliptic coordinates, and the visibility indicator (quantities 3, 6, 12-14),
> you would use -E 3,6,12-14.
>
> -C (MPC code) Reset MPC code for which ephems are generated. Similarly,
> you can skip this and just use the code from the last ephemeris.
>
> On 10/10/19 5:40 PM, p476jaotyfdxp7etq7jlp3k2yzfkkhnbpxz6hts5@... [find_orb] wrote:
>>
>>
>> Is there any way to run Find_Orb as a command line tool under Windows? It would be useful to run it in a batch mode.
>>
>> KR,
>> Gajowy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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