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

Bill Gray Oct 11 11:52 AM

Hi Jost,

Wups! Should have occurred to me to do that. Try this (535 KBytes) :

https://www.projectpluto.com/temp/fo32.zip

Otherwise the same directions as for 'fo.zip'.

With either of these, it'd be a good idea to let me know if you run
into issues. I did much of the testing in Wine on Linux; getting things
to work on all the forks of Windows can sometimes present a challenge.

-- Bill

On 10/11/19 7:43 AM, Jost Jahn Yahoo@... [find_orb] wrote:
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
> Posted by: Jost Jahn <yahoo@...>
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