G'day all,
As an encouragement to recycle old computers and thereby introduce Guide
to a wider audience, I am posting this description of how I got a useful
hard-disk install of Guide 6 in less than 70MB.
This setup has now been operating for about two years at the local
observatory and has been used by many people. I don't know if Bill
has bought himself a Ferrari from the increased sales yet ;-) but I do
know a lot of our local observers first encountered Guide on this
computer; and some now have it at home.
The computer is a 486-33 with 8MB RAM, a 8x CDROM, a 120MB hard drive,
and 640x480 VGA monitor; and was about to be tossed into a bin by the
former owner because it wouldn't run Windows 95. I took it home, wiped
the drive and started turning it into an astronomical computer.
I chose Caldera's DR-DOS 7.02 as the OS for various reasons including:
it's free for non-commercial use, it's Y2k-compliant (and will correct
non-compliant hardware), it has other nice features, it would run really
well in 8MB RAM - and I had the install disks.
Naturally we thought of having Guide on this computer and I had recently
read Bill's description of how Guide 6 could be run from a hard drive.
Obviously a full 680MB install was impossible; and Bill's 11MB install
omitted a lot that was useful to our observers. We also wanted an image
gallery (run by PictView, another good DOS program), SkyGlobe, and a few
other items for public nights; so I couldn't use the whole 125MB.
There was also the problem of how to make Guide start up in a definite
configuration each time, no matter what strange things had been done
with it at 3am on the previous observing night. Because DR-DOS handles
memory (and DOS4GW extenders) a little differently from MS-DOS it was
necessary to run Guide from a batch file anyway viz:
listing of GOGUIDE.BAT
-----------------------
dpmi off
emm386 pic=on
wguide <---- the DOS version of Guide 6
emm386 pic=off
dpmi on
-----------------------
This immediately raised the possibility of "why not have the batch file
retrieve a standardised startup file before launching Guide ?" But we
also wanted to have the capability of running Guide without the CD,
because more often than not everyone would forget to bring along their
Guide CD on observing night! It was therefore necessary to create two
versions of STARTUP.MAR; which I called "no-cdrom.mar" and
"full-cd.mar". The only difference between them was in line 18:
no-cdrom.mar
18 drive c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\
full-cd.mar
18 drive d:\
I created one simply by running Guide and quitting when I had a nice
Level 5 view of Crux in Red Light Mode; copying it to the other
filename, and editing line 18 to suit.
GOGUIDE.BAT was modified to accept a single commandline parameter. If
it's run as "goguide mini" it starts the non-CD installation; if it's
run as "goguide" it needs the CD. GOGUIDE.BAT now reads:
--------------------
@echo off
rem "dpmi" and "emm386" lines are DR-DOS specific
dpmi off
emm386 pic=on
rem
rem Batchfile to automatically run Guide 6 from either the CD (full
rem version) or hard disk (mini version)
rem Always starts with a "standard" display of Crux
rem
rem wipe out startup.mar from previous run
del c:\astro\guide6\startup.mar
if "%1"=="mini" goto no-cd
if "%1"=="MINI" goto no-cd
copy c:\astro\guide6\marfiles\full-cd.mar c:\astro\guide6\startup.mar
echo Starting full (CD-ROM) version of Guide 6...
wguide
goto end
:no-cd
copy c:\astro\guide6\marfiles\no-cdrom.mar c:\astro\guide6\startup.mar
echo Starting mini (no CD-ROM) version of Guide 6...
echo.
echo NB: "mini" = LIMITED capabilities, and some functions won't work!
echo.
wguide
:end
rem "dpmi" and "emm386" lines are DR-DOS specific
emm386 pic=off
dpmi on
---------------------
And how did I install Guide 6 to do this in the first place? A normal
install of Guide to the directory c:\astro\guide6; followed by a "hard
drive install" to c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6. After copying over all of
Bill's suggested "minimum install" files, and the Hipparcos/Tycho
Catalogue, NGC/IC and SAC, variable stars, and a few years worth of
asteroids & comets; the latter directory now contains the following
files:
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\addcomet.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\addcomet.exe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\ast_rem.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\astnames.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\astnum
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\cometg.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\cometlim.bin
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\dddcomet.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\discodoc
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\fddcomet.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\foreign.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\intro.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\lightcrv.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\lightdoc.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\lightref.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\magdoc.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\magetal.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\pole.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\poledoc.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\poleref.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\propdoc.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\proper.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\provisio.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2450
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451200.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451200.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451250.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451250.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451300.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451300.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451350.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451350.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451400.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451400.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451450.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451450.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451500.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451500.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451550.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451550.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451600.ast
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\asteroid\asteroid\2451\2451600.lim
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\bsc\compbsc4.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\bsc\rem.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\geo\world.bin
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\hipp\lg_tycho.lmp
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\hipp\sm_tycho.lmp
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\ngc2000\ngc2000.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\ngc2000\ngc2cats.idx
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\ngc2000\rngc.gaz
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\navstar.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\ngc_rem.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\photondx.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\potporri.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\revhist.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\sac_60.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\sacdoc.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\sac\sacrep.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\2e_xray.tdf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\aavsoatl.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\aavsomap.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\abell.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\abell.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\agn.tdf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\asteroid.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\barnard.doc
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\bigfont
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\binorbit.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\bitfont
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\cd_data.idf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\cd_data.tdf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\chart.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\comet.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\comets.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\common.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\common2.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\common2.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\constabb.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\constbnd.ove
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\constell.nad
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\constell.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\constell.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\constlab.ove
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\constlin.ove
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\country.naf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\country.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\dasteroi.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\dcanned.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\dcomets.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\deutsch.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\dhelp.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\double.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\double.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\dplanets.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\earthtra.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ecanned.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ehelpext.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\extrafnt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\factory.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\fcanned.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\fddcomet.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gal_name.nad
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gal_name.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gal_name.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gcvs.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gervase.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\globular.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gloss.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gscdata2.idx
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\gsdevice.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\halley.ove
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\header.ps
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\help.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ic.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\icanned.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\iddcomet.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ihelpext.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\iplanets.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ita_type.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\japetusi.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\jul91ecl.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\leitner.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\loc.tdf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\marks.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\may94ecl.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\messier.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\messier.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\nearby.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\neb.tdf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\nebula.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\nebula.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ngc.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\openclus.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\openclus.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\overlays.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\palette.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\pk.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\pk2.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\planets.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\poss.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\printers.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\printers.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\radio.idf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\radio.tdf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\sattrans.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\saturnw4.mar
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\serc.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\serctext.uov
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\stars.gaz
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\stations.txt
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\strings.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\supernov.nai
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\supernov.nam
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\swapname.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\tdf.doc
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ucas.tdf
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\ugc.not
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\vectfont.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\win_men2.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\text\win_menu.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\utils\add_elem.exe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\utils\aligner.exe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\variable\6044.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\variable\deu_type.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\variable\gcvs3.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\variable\nsv3.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\variable\var_type.dat
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\variable\variable.lmp
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\big_vsop.bin
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet03.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet04.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet05.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet06.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet09.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet10.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet11.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\planet12.qwe
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\vsop\vsop.bin
c:\astro\guide6\mini-g6\watcom\dos4gw.exe
Two bits of ongoing maintenance are the addition of newly-discovered
comets and asteroids; and the updating of the asteroid files (*.lim and
*.ast) to match the current year. The main Guide directory
(c:\astro\guide6) also contains a few extras from the website such as
the Bennett Catalogue and the quasar list; which are available in both
Guides.
The "no CD" version of Guide 6 has worked well for finding galaxies,
Hale-Bopp at 1 billion km, planetary satellites, asteroids, etc on
public nights. It's also been good for those "which direction should I
move my tri-Schiefspeigler from this cluster to find that comet at
2am"-type questions on member's nights.
The main drawback has been the limited information when you click "more
info" for most objects. This can be avoided by copying over more data
files, but I regard this problem as a reminder to bring the Guide CD
in future!
Out of curiosity, I repeated this setup on a 386sx-20, 4MB RAM, 2x
CD-ROM system which I have in my workshop. It was slower, but it still
worked.
So go and ask your mum if you can have your old computer back from
her for your observatory... ;-)
( Bill, this can be reproduced on the Pluto website if you like )
cheers,
Fraser Farrell
http://www.dove.net.au/~fraserf/