Hello Rudi,

I just looked further into this topic. For testing I copied the gcvs-tdf file to
another name (but with the ending .tdf). The list of the user data sets contained
2 entries for gcvs! And also the file "tdf_list.dat" showed 2 of these entries.
Deleting one entry (the copy) was no help. When starting Guide this second line
was there again. I think the file "tdf_list.dat" contains all user data sets that
are in use at the moment. In the first line is probably the four-digit number
which counts the number of entries (0003 in my case) (like in ccds.nam).

With this copied gcvs-tdf file I also had doubled the markings of the stars (2
times ZZ Cam for example). When right-clicking for more infos on the first I got
them. When clicking on "next" Guide crashed. So this is the same behaviour as you
have. But this happened for all variable stars I tested. When I deleted the copy
of my gcvs-tdf file everything worked ok. Only one designation. I still got 3
stars, but they come from different catalogues: UCAC4, GCVS from 2017 Dec. 05.

This is what I thought. But right clicking on the third star got me also a crash!
OK. I switched off UCAC4. I have only 2 stars and 1 designation remaining. One
red one and one white one. Switching off colored stars in star display dialogue
the star at the NW of both turned also white. The separation of both stars are
0.0140" in PA 295.2 deg. Rigth clicking for more info on the south-eastern white
star gives the info from GCVS.

But now it's becoming interesting: right clicking on the north-western red star
givs me the basic information of the star: brightness and spectral class, the
names in different catalogues (ZZ Cam, TYC, SAO, PPM, HIP, HD), height, azimuth,
rise and set time (circumpolar in this case) and the and transit time.
When further clicking on the other entries (OK, Next, Display) Guide behaves as
expected. Only when clicking on "More info" it crashes.

I tried with another star (alf Psc): I got 3 symbols (one from GCSV, ok) and two
from another catalogue which crashed Guide. First I thought both stars had the
same entries, but the brightness (4.100 and 5.167) and one designation (TYC 40
1338 2 and TYC 40 1338 1) are different.

I don't know any further. Maybe it's a problem with the Hipparcos catalogue. I
think in this case Bill has to investigate.

Clear skies
Bernd

> Hi Bernd,
>
> Thank you for this. I had seen the "empty" lines at the beginning of the (sorted)
> GCVS catalogue, but didn't know how to handle this (and I didn't want to change
> anything).
>
> As for the "distance" of the drawn star from the real place, I was wondering
> whether this has to do with the fact that there are other variable star catalogues
> in the Guide folder (not in the Guide main folder, but in the subfolder, called
> "Variables"). I was wondering whether I should delete this folder completely, as
> it is of no use anymore.
>
> May I again use ZZ Cam as an example (my PC is not available for me at the moment,
> I am on my mobile phone, so I couldn't test with the new star you introduced).
>
> But zooming in maximally with ZZ Cam in the center of the map, I get 4 (four) star
> signe (for the same star) and two designations: "ZZ" and "ZZ Cam" !!! One star
> ist black (with only a white circle) and (at maximum "zoom in") more far away from
> the place where ZZ Cam should be. If I click on this one to get more information,
> Guide crashes. I think there is definitively interference with some other
> (older?)catalogue. ... But which one ?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Rudi

Bernd Klemt

Sternwarte Herne, MPC code A18
Herne, Germany

e-mail: info@...
http://www.sternwarte-herne.de