Combined files/missing comet

Bill J Gray Jun 29, 2002

Hi folks,

About the idea of combining all files needed for an update: at
present, for Guide 8, this is a possibility... I've posted a lot
of additional files, but none of them (so far) have been really
large.

The suggestion of providing a list of "things to download" is
a good one. The list of files on the site,

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

is useful (and I'll be adding a link to it from the "history"
page), but it's a "dumb" list; it doesn't tell you which file
does what. Something along the lines of "here are files you can
download that work with Guide 8, and here's what they do" is apt
to be more helpful. I ought to be able to cobble together something
of that ilk.

Glen, about your "missing comet": one excellent possibility is
that the comet is too faint to make it onto the list. You can go
into the Data Shown menu and set a fainter limiting magnitude (or
zoom in a few levels to get the same effect) and try again.

If that fails, please e-mail me your COMETS.DAT file, and I'll
see what I can dig out.

Be advised that, in general, it's not a great idea to use the
"Edit Comet Data" function; it's better to visit the Minor Planet
Center site and get comets in Guide's format at

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Soft02.html

and import them with the "Extras... Add MPC Comets/Asteroids"
function. This is less error-prone, and gets you all currently
visible comets in one batch.

-- Bill