Hi folks,
A few extensions/clarifications:
James mentioned the Australian city data. That's available at
http://www.projectpluto.com/random.htm#extend_cities
The same URL gives a description of the format of the geographic
name data, including the meaning of the "LOI" (Level of Importance)
codes. The only other thing I'd mention is that it's important to
keep the names sorted by longitude!
Ned, I've had several comments over the last few months about
"where did planet features go". I posted one version of Guide that had
a bug causing the planet features to go away, so do make sure you've
got a current copy. Also, you need PLANET10.GAZ for Lunar features,
PLANET04.GAZ for Martian features, and so on. These are contained in
the PLANETS.ZIP download from the Web site.
If that doesn't fix the problem, click on the planet in question,
select "Display" and then "Options", and make sure the "Show Features"
checkbox is on; and set the "Feature Density" to about 200.
Steve O'Leary mentioned the "Binaries with orbits" as an alternative
to the WDS (Washington Double Star) dataset; both are already provided
on your Guide 7.0 disk. A third possibility is the CCDM (Catalogue of
Components of Doubles and Multiples), discussed at
http://www.projectpluto.com/extras.htm#CCDM
The other two catalogues have horrible positions. CCDM not only
gives fairly exact locations; it also shows the components _separately_,
so you can tell which is which and where they ought to be. I expect to
put it on one of the two Guide 8.0 disks.
Erno, the files and directions for using WDS-2000 in Guide 7.0 are
available here:
http://www.projectpluto.com/extras.htm#WDS
Jari's suggestion of setting up a separate mark file is a good one...
the idea of stripping out the parts of a .MAR file that are specific
to a given job can be extended quite a bit. I have .MARs that set, say,
a specific date/time, RA/dec, and lat/lon, while leaving everything
else unchanged. People wanting to do such things will need to know which
lines in a .MAR file perform a given function; this is documented at:
http://www.projectpluto.com/mar_fmt.doc
-- Bill