Hidden pages/Find_Orb/'common stars'/encoders/.BMPs

Bill J. Gray Apr 26, 2001

Hi folks,

HIDDEN PAGES:

All pages regarding new features in Guide are discussed at...

http://www.projectpluto.com/update7.htm

(or go to the main page, http://www.projectpluto.com, and click on
"Updated Software"), starting right after the "language" downloads,
in reverse chronological order. I've tried to arrange it such that you
can briskly look over about sixty "subject" lines in search of the
items in which you actually have an interest.

_Most_ of the time, that will let you track down the feature in
question. After that, I'd suggest looking at the index to the site,
also accessible from the main page by clicking on "Index". This is
particularly helpful if you're looking for info on something that is
not explicitly Guide-related. For one reason or another, I've posted
a slew of pages regarding topics such as minor planet groups, "blue
moons", measuring trailed images, historical calendars, and other
topics that don't really have much to do with Guide. The "index" page
lists most of these.

That said, the pages keep growing and are in need of some fresh
indexing. There are cases where I've written pages, posted them
without links from other pages, and forgotten about them.

FIND_ORB IMPROVEMENTS:

Find_Orb can now determine "constrained" orbits (ones in which, say,
you assume a circular orbit or one of a particular orbital period).
Giuliano Pinto has provided files so that it can run in Italian, and
has translated the documentation. For info, see:

http://www.projectpluto.com/find_orb.htm#History

'COMMON STAR' FAILURE:

Ned, I'll take a guess that you're running Guide from the hard drive,
without PPM data, and with a slightly older version of DOS Guide. At
one time, when you asked for a 'common star name', Guide would look up
PPM data for that star and recenter accordingly. Problem was, people
started doing hard drive installs, and the 'minimal' install omits that
25 MBytes or so of PPM data.

Download the current version of DOS Guide, and it'll realize that it
lacks PPM data and will make use of the (slightly lower precision and
proper motion-less) data from COMMON2.NAM instead.

ENCODER FAILURE:

I don't really know what would cause this, but it does sound like some
sort of hardware problem. I'd try running the "test" program that's
provided with the Ouranos and see how it does.

One problem I know people run into with the Ouranos: you have to provide
your own adapter to DC, and while most of us have a slew of these left
over from broken electronic gadgets, they don't always provide much in
the way of filtering. Some don't really filter at _all_; they just
run lower-voltage AC through diodes, so the DC current runs from (say)
0 to 12 volts instead of -12 to 12 volts. In my own case, I had to cut
open the wire from the adapter and insert a capacitor to get DC voltage
that would run the Ouranos reliably.

LUNAR .BMP TROUBLES:

This will _probably_ go away in a different video mode. It seems
some people get odd colors if they use "Make a .BMP" in 256-color modes;
others in 16-bit modes; others in 24-bit modes. I don't really know
why; I think it's related to device drivers, but cannot confidently
accuse them yet.


-- Bill