Re: [guide-user] Basic questions from a new guy.

Arild Moland Nov 16, 2004

Hi Pete, welcome to the group!

> 1. This software apparently requires that I place CD #1 into my
> drive everytime before it will boot. What a pain in the butt! I
> thought that this kind of software protection went out with Win 95.
> Am I missing something here????

Yes indeed! Use the Extras | Install to hard drive... option to install whatever
files you need on a regular basis, and Guide will install these items on your
hard drive. Note also that you don't have to install everything to disk, only
the stuff you (think you) need. If you try to access data which hasn't been
installed, Guide doesn't complain. It assumes that you - the user - knows what
you're doing and that you didn't want that data on your drive. But it will read
it from the CD if the CD is present. The best way to avoid confusion is to
install everything. After all it's only two CDs worth of data, which will be
only be an issue with small drives. But of course, if you don't care for
galaxies, don't bother with LEDA etc. Just remember that if you didn't install
it all, and at a later time find that you're missing something, it may not have
been installed.

> 2. Charts print out just fine, but it sure would be nice to have the
> basic info (such as the name) of the object centered in the chart.
> Is there a way to accomplish this?

Most objects can be labelled with their name (or their number in the case of
asteroids). Click the Display button in the More info dialog to see the settings
for the display of this type of object. Some object doesn't get labelled until
you have zoomed in quite a bit, to avoid crowding of the chart.

> isn't deliniated as the information just seems to roll over and
> repeat. Is this a recognized program glitch?

I can't help you on this one. Never tried to print the info.

> 4. Perhaps the major issue that I'm having is the accuracy, or lack
> of accuracy that I'm getting on my charts. The Guide 8 manual
> cautions that there are several reasons why asteroids may vary from
> predicted location. And with the rarer less charted ones I can
> understand that. But at this stage I'm primarially trying to
> identify the brighter best known ones. And 20 to 30% of these are
> several minutes out of location. I have repeatedly resorted to

Guide is one of the most (if not the most) accurate programs on the market, so
there must be something wrong here. Of course, you don't get better results than
the data you put in, and in the case of asteroids you need to get up to date.
The brighter stuff however, doesn't change its data that much, so the data
included with Guide ought to be good enough. I have sure found many asteroids
right where they were charted to be, by using Guide. What you should do in any
case, is downloading the MPCORB from the Minor Planet Center, and place the
MPCORB.dat file in the Guide directory, and then switch on Extras | Use MPCORB.
Then all your asteroids become up to date. Check out some of the fainter
asteroids (or higher numbered, or those not numbered at all), and compare Guide
and The Sky now. Unless TheSky has been updated, Guide will show the correct
positions.

And you should of course double-check your location and time zone. Your
asteroids will be off by several minutes if you are looking at the at different
times...

> invoking? I can understand if both programs had the same error, but
> The Sky is accurate and Guide 8 isn't. Am I missing something here?

As far as I can tell from your description, you're not doing anything wrong,
but there must be something odd happening since you get these errors. I have
never had any problems finding any asteroid using Guide, I make sure to update
my data (even though the stuff that comes with Guide is fairly accurate for the
brigther stuff).

MPCORB may be found here

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/MPCORB.html

> Sorry to bother the group with what are novice questions. For the
> past week I've repeatedly left phone messages on Guide's unanswered
> telephone and still have had no response.

I think you'll discover that this group will answer most of your questions, and
Bill (the creator of Guide) is a frequent contributor too. Also, search the
groups archives for answers as well. Chances are that you will find solutions
there.

Kind regards,

Arild :)

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