Re: Using YB6 in Guide via Internet download from VizieR

. Nov 14, 2007

Hiya Greg

It's all my fault for having no memory.

I think the latest beta version, that has been around for quite a
while, may not have actually been released as yet, and I forgot.

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

Is I think the place the latest version usually lives, but not
necessarily the most stable, although I think this one is pretty stable.

I believe some versions take a little while to go public because of
delays in technical feedback, such as when mount drivers are added and
the like, which not everyone uses, and I forgot.

Sorry.

Hopefully there's a download.txt via there, and this might explain why
I hadn't posted something like this in my last 'netcarnation.

I unfortunately have no sense of the passage of time.

Cheers

John

--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com, "gmccluresprint"
<gmccluresprint@...> wrote:
>
> I was interested in doing this, but I am having problems finding the
> DOWNLOAD.TXT file you refer to. I have Guide8, I have updated it
with the
> latest updates. The ZIP file does NOT contain any such file. Did I
miss
> something in the update process?
>
> Greg
>
> _____
>
> From: guide-user@yahoogroups.com [mailto:guide-user@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of .
> Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2007 10:22 AM
> To: guide-user@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [guide-user] Using YB6 in Guide via Internet download from
VizieR
>
>
>
>
> How to plot YB6 stars in Guide is detailed.
>
> _Background_
>
> There's a certain amount of fascination with the NOMAD catalogue
> amongst some. For Guide users most of NOMAD is already available, as
> the USNO B1.0, UCAC2 and 2MASS data are already downloadable and
> plottable in Guide, whilst Guide already has Tycho2 and Hipparcos
> within it (and some also have the full UCAC2). So the use of NOMAD
> tends to double up what already exists in Guide, and it carries no
> particular extra information to that included in the other catalogues.
>
> But the YB6 is in NOMAD, and this seems to fascinate people for two
> reasons. First, it is an unpublished USNO product which is
> unavailable separately, so it only exists in NOMAD. This is still the
> case, to some extent. However, it is a digitisation of the plates
> from the Yale Proper Motion surveys, so anyone using the NPM1 and NPM2
> (Northern PM 1 and 2 catalogues), and, the SPM2.0 or better still the
> SPM3.3 (Southern PM version 2 or version 3.3) will already have access
> to a lot of this data, although not all.
>
> Second, it carries 'V magnitudes'. In fact these are photographic
> magnitudes taken through a yellow filter in much the same way 'quick
> V' images have been taken by POSS (equatorially) and other surveys in
> the past, and although they can be reasonable to around a quarter mag,
> all the way down to magnitude 17, in crowded fields they are no better
> than any GSC1.x or USNO A/B mag in terms of quality, being up to a
> magnitude out.
>
> Nevertheless, if people can get at the data, they might no worry about
> it so much, and not feel the need to access NOMAD whilst only
> receiving mostly that which they've already got access to.
>
> Note also that many objects in NOMAD logged as unique to YB6 (ie not
> in UCAC2 nor USNO B1.0) are also in 2MASS, but NOMAD uses all optical
> catalogues if possible before resorting to using 2MASS positions
> (although it will use 2MASS magnitudes wherever available), so
> relatively very few truly unique YB6 objects will occur.
>
> _The Procedure_
>
> Ensure Guide is not running.
>
> With the latest upgrades of Guide 8 from the internet at
> www.projectpluto.com it's now easy to access any dataset available via
> VizieR. A little work is needed using a text editor, notepad will
> likely suffice, but nothing clever is needed to be known.
>
> HOWEVER, three working files in Guide have to be added to in the text
> editor, so for the seriously cautious, back up the files in you Guide
> directory (there is no need to back up the subdirectories/subfolders,
> just the files in the Guide directory/folder).
>
> Everyone else can simply backup, or make copies in a separate folder
> elsewhere, or wherever, of the following three files which are going
> to be modified :-
>
> download.txt
> strings.dat
> win_menu.dat
>
> download.txt will only exist if you have downloaded and used the later
> upgrade versions of the program. If you haven't got it, you can't get
> extra data from VizieR.
>
> After backing up those 3 files in whatever way load download.txt into
> a text editor.
>
> The first few lines will look something like this, but will not carry
> as many entries or be exactly like it:-
>
> # Documentation at bottom of file
> 2798 -cI/305/out&-out.all=0 gsc23.dat
> 2799 -cII/276/sdss5&-out.all=0&mode==1 sdssdr5.dat
> 2800 -cII/270/catal tcs.dat
> 2801 -cB/denis/denis denis.dat
> 2802 -cI/297/out&r=Y yb6.dat
> end
>
> Access for a new catalogue is entered as a line before the "end"
> statement.
>
> In this instance I already have several catalogues that will be extra
> to most, whilst not having several other catalogue retrieval routes in
> the original because of having the full catalogues on hard disk (eg
> ucac2 and cmc14).
>
> The running number in the first column is important, each entry must
> have a unique number.
>
> In this instance the number chosen is 2802. Someone already having
> gone past 2802 needs to pick the next number after their last entry.
> Someone who hasn't gotten that far can use whatever number is next.
>
> This number must be remembered, it will be used elsewhere.
>
> In download.txt enter the line beginning 2802 exactly as shown, cut
> and paste it if needed. Edit 2802 to be the number desired by your
> system. If you have not as yet reached 2802, you can use 2802 even if
> you have not used any of the immediately previous numbers, as long as
> you never use it for something else in download.txt. ie, enter
>
> 2802 -cI/297/out&r=Y yb6.dat
>
> on the line immediately before the one saying "end", and change 2802
> as desired.
>
> Now Guide knows whereabouts in VizieR to look for the data. It is
> actually selecting the YB6 unique entries from NOMAD as per the above
> URL segment.
>
> When it finds it, it will save it to a file in the Guide
> directory/folder called
>
> yb6.dat
>
> which is an ascii file, a raw text file.
>
> Now we need to get Guide to do this action when we want.
>
> The toolbar could be used, but the YB6 unique objects (ie ones not in
> UCAC2 nor USNO B1.0 nor 2MASS) are actually quite sparse (which is the
> reason using all of NOMAD just to get the odd YB6 object is overkill).
>
> That's a bit of a waste of a toolbar button, which soon fill up the
> menu bar if we're not careful.
>
> So, we'll add the invocation command to the menu under
>
> EXTRAS->Get Star Catalog Data
>
> If you run Guide now and look under that menu you will see there are
> already options to get data from CDROM and the internet in that
> submenu. You must now close Guide, and indeed ensure Guide is not
> running before making and saving any further changes.
>
> Get YB6 from Internet will be added to the bottom of that list.
>
> Ensure win_menu.dat is safely backed up somehow, load it into a text
> editor, and look down the file towards the end. As the menues go
> right to left on screen, the entries in win_menu.dat are top to bottom
> in the same order, more or less.
>
> You will eventually see some entries like
>
> 2550 1545 Get UCAC2 from Internet
>
> this is the group that is being looked for.
>
> Under the last entry of that group (although above Clear Ax.0 data if
> that is the last entry) add the following line
>
> 2802 1563 Get YB6 from Internet
>
> This is where the 2802 comes in, this links to download.txt, when this
> menu item is called, the same number action is run in download.txt...
>
> ...so IF YOU'VE USED SOMETHING OTHER THAN 2802 CHANGE THE ABOVE ENTRY
> TO USE THE NUMBER YOU'VE USED.
>
> Now we have another slightly pedantic problem.
>
> In the above entry the second number column is the line number in
> strings.dat where the text for this menu command also lives.
>
> It will likely not be 1563 on your machine. It will be very close to
> that number, as not much extra is added to my strings.dat from normal.
>
> The end of strings.dat looks something like this (it will wordwrap,
> all lines should star with [] )
>
> [] Anything following a [] is a comment. Comments can be added
> freely at
> []the end of this file, since GUIDE refers to strings by line number; no
> []attempt is made to read past the last "meaningful" piece of text.
> [] Most comments were added just to help translators figure out
> where and
> []how that text is used.
> [] Lines 1026-1028 contain color values for planets; they are used
> if (a)
> []colored planets are available and (b) the planet has no bitmap.
>
> with a linespace before them. The entry before this gap line is the
> last in the menu. You will enter a new line after this, and it is the
> number of that line you need to know for replacing the 1563 value in
> win_menu.dat in the above example for adding YB6 to win_menu.dat.
>
> It's not as hard as it sounds. Most text editors and ascii viewers
> will count lines. Or import it as ascii into excel as one whole
> column for the lot, and the row number will be the line number, yep,
> just checked that, it works.
>
> The new line in strings.dat simply reads
>
> Get YB6 from Internet
>
> So now with the line
>
> 2802 1563 Get YB6 from Internet
>
> in win_menu.dat (with your number replacing 2802 from what you used in
> download.txt and your line number from strings.dat replacing 1563)
>
> all are connected to each other.
>
> Now ensure Guide is not running still, and apply the above.
>
> From now on whenever Get YB6 from Internet is selected for any
> reasonably small field YB6 stars will be added to the file YB6.dat in
> the Guide directory/folder.
>
> Now all that is needed is to be able to view the data.
>
> Simply cut and paste the following data into a text editor and save it
> as the file YB6.tdf in the Guide directory/folder.
>
> Now whenever you are in a field of two degrees or less and have
> downloaded YB6 data, should any exist for that field, these will be
> plotted as white stars to the V magnitude, or if there is no V
> magnitude as small dotlike circles, where the B magnitude can be found
> via right click (this should only occur for stars fainter then V mag
> around 18 which are blue enough to be brighter in B mag so will be for
> very faintest objects, so a small dot will suffice).
>
> Right click on these and the V mag (visual photographic plate mag, and
> around +/- 0.3 mag at best, +/- 1+ at worst, especially in crowded
> fields) and any B (blue photographic plate mag, ditto on quality, and
> _not_ contemporaneous with the V mags) and any proper motion details
> (not necessarily of the highest accuracy) are presented. More info
> gives the RA and Dec quoted directly from the data in decimal degrees
> (accuracy likely better than USNO B1.0 but probably never as good as
> UCAC2, it's a photographic survey remember) and converted via Guide
> into sexagesimal, as well as quoting the errors on the proper motion,
> and repeating the rest of the right click data again.
>
> And that, as they say, is that. You can probably do it all in less
> time than it takes to read this.
>
> Typical coverage is exemplified by a quarter degree field centred on
> the sparse field around the cataclysmic variable AL Com. Only seven
> stars are unique to YB6.
>
> Cheers
>
> John
>
> John Greaves
>
> ---yb6.tdf copy from the next line----
> file yb6.dat
> title YB6 from VizieR
> volatile
> RA H 21 9
> units0 -2
> de d 34 9
> mag 94 6
> ~b 24 1 YB6 Star\n\n
> ~b 94 6 Vmag %s\n
> ~b 84 6 Bmag %s\n
> ~r 21 9 \nRA 2000 %R\n
> ~r 34 9 Dec2000 %D\n\n
> ~r 21 9 RA %s Dec %[34,9] deg\n\n
> ~c 51 7 muRA %s mas/y\n
> ~c 68 7 muDe %s mas/y\n
> ~r 51 7 RAcos(Dec) proper motion : %s +/- %[61,4] mas/year\n
> ~r 68 7 Declination proper motion : %s +/- %[78,4] mas/year\n
>
> epoch 2000
> type 6
> type sCffffff;e0,0,6;
> field 0.00 20.00
> mag lim 22.0
> shown 5
> end
> ----------copy only up to the previous line---------
>
> check the long lines starting
>
> ~r 51
>
> and
>
> ~r 68
>
> for wordwrap. These are the last two lines before the gap line and
> the follow line "epoch 2000", and should read as two lines, not three
> or four.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>