Hiya

Well, it is as it says on the tin, I'm afraid.

This is for immediate use, via vizier, because vizier downloads data to the hard drive in a quasi-ascii way, at least the way Guide 8 downloads it.

Now, if you've got the DVD, although you mention CD, I'd heard it to be a double sided DVD, that's in compressed binary files, and when Bill Gray has a chance to see some of those he will likely have to generate a Guide8.exe update. Just as the CD version of UCAC2, either directly or copied to hard disk, is compressed binary files, and has bits of itself decompressed on the file with Guide 8.

The VizieR aspect is that VizieR serves the data in a different way to the source, and it is a way that can be used easily via the TDF system.

It's not the same thing at all.

VizieR serves several large databases in a way Guide can get at them, but also in a way that is a kind of "CDS standard" as opposed to how the source data necessarily look.

USNO are serving UCAC3 in a somewhat proprietary manner so they can fit it on one DVD.

There are other differences too. For instance, as sourced via CD/DVD ROM all versions of UCAC, first, second and third, do not include declination. They give South Polar Distance in millarcseconds. VizieR converts this to declination for the users' convenience. Bill will likely write something that will convert this as an exe file for data extraction to ascii, and also separately for Guide 8, the same as he did for UCAC2 in the past.

I assume.

I've gone on at length to assure you I'm not just fobbing you off, I'm trying to show the two source routes are different universes.

Cheers

John

--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com, "P. Clay Sherrod" <drclay@...> wrote:
>
> Hello John....
> Since I am about to install UCAC-3 this is very interesting and important to me, but
> frankly I have no idea what you just posted. Can you explain exactly what this does once
> installed?
>
> Your explanation as to what it IS is very impressive, but I think you may be overlooking
> the obvious, as in: what does this do? What if we are not installing from "VizieR" but
> from CD's, etc., etc.
>
> Your help is appreciated, but it is me who needs help on this one....thanks. Sometimes
> computer-challenged individuals needs a bit more than the facts.
>
> Dr. Clay
> _____
> Arkansas Sky Observatories
> MPC H45 - Petit Jean Mountain South
> MPC H41 - Petit Jean Mountain
> MPC H43 - Conway West
> http://www.arksky.org/
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "ucac3temp" <ucac3temp@...>
> To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 12:02 PM
> Subject: [guide-user] UCAC3 from VizieR in Guide 8 - a howto
>
>
> >
> > Alrighty then, here's a temporary ucac3 from vizier for Guide 8 thingy until Bill has
> > chance to do a grown up and more sophisticated one, because it is quite a busy dataset,
> > with lots of flags and all that.
> >
> > This will give you positions, errors on positions, proper of the motions, errors
> > thereupon, and ucac3 "model fit" ucac3 mags as well as 2mass J and Ks mags and errors
> > thereon, and maybe something else, I forget already.
> >
> > I haven't bothered with any flags, ones such as those for doubles will only crop up
> > rarely, and I'm fairly sure most of the astrometry software ignores various flags,
> > especially the photometric ones, so why shouldn't a charting proggie? Also no final
> > paper has been published yet so exactly what some flags represent and which one's
> > concern the average chart maker or scope pointer is summat else altogether, even if
> > there is a readme explaining some points, that's not the same as a full description as
> > will appear in the eventual published journal paper.
> >
> > There's no use in the tdf I've writ for this one of the Guide proper motion corrections
> > to epoch of date, ie I haven't used those command words to add proper motion to get
> > epoch corrections coz it's often "problematic". Positions are thus epoch and equinox
> > 2000 and proper motion is quoted in more info and help pop up.
> >
> > Guide should not be running when you do the following. Backup any file to be edited,
> > just make a copy of if unsure.
> >
> > First, you need to get hold of download.txt. Make a back up of the original. It's in
> > the Guide directory.
> >
> > Place it in a text editor. There are already a number of catalogues listed, and the
> > last one is followed by a line simply saying
> >
> > end
> >
> > insert before this last line the following, via cut and paste or type it
> >
> > 2803 -cI/315/out&-out.all=1 ucac3.dat
> >
> > If you already have an entry/line starting 2803, use a number after whatever number
> > you've already got.
> >
> > Remember that new number of yours though, you'll need it in toolbar.dat.
> >
> > Now, backup toolbar.dat. Load toolbar.dat into a text editor. Again, it's in the Guide
> > directory.
> >
> > Increment the number at top of toolbar.dat by 1. ie if it's 3000 make it say 3001, just
> > by simple text editing.
> >
> > Add/insert somewhere, probably near where you see a line like !usno.bmp, the following
> > new line
> >
> > 2803 !ucac3.bmp UCAC3 data from VizieR
> >
> > there are 3 spaces at the start of that line, make it line up with the other nonhashed
> > lines in toolbar.dat if confused.
> >
> > Again, if you used a number other than 2803 in download.txt you use that number instead
> > of 2803 here in toolbar.dat.
> >
> > Save that in the Guide directory.
> >
> > You ain't got a button for the toolbar, I hear you cry.
> >
> > Okay then, I'll upload ucac3.bmp to the yahoo webpages FILES account, download it from
> > there. Alternatively just find any small bmp in you Guide directory, copy it, rename it
> > to ucac3.bmp, put it any old paint package, even a basic one like the one that comes
> > with the OS, zoom in a lot and pixel edit it to look however you want, and save it as
> > ucac3.bmp to your Guide directory.
> >
> > And that's it. You run Guide, you press the button, the ucac3 data downloads from
> > VizieR (I'm using Strasbourg server, dunno if it's gone worldwide re servers as yet).
> >
> > Except, that isn't it, coz you can't see anything.
> >
> > So, here is the tdf to display it.
> >
> > Cut and paste the below text into a text editor, save it to Guide directory as a file
> > called ucac3.tdf, and you'll get help and more info. It should be on via default.
> >
> > Stars are coloured via 2mass bumf, and drawn to the ucac3 model fit magnitude (I ain't
> > bothered quoting the ucac3 aperture fit magnitude, yep, two for the price of one you get
> > nowadays, or bogof as they call it here).
> >
> > I'll shove a copy of that in files too.
> >
> > You lucky people...
> >
> > As I say, you'll no doubt get a more grown up version later, and those who wish to get a
> > dvd will probably in time be able to use that, hopefully even when copied to hard drive,
> > but these are only just shipping out, and will be slowly generated, I believe, so it may
> > be a long while afore Guide can meaningfully support said.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > John
> >
> > John Greaves
> >
> >
> > ---------cut and paste from next line--------
> > file ucac3.dat
> > title UCAC3
> > RA H 12 9
> > units0 -2
> > de d 29 9
> > text 1 9
> > mag 70 6
> > photo J:163,5 H:180,5 K:197,5
> > ~b 1 9 3UCAC %s\n\n
> > ~r 12 9 RA 2000 %5R +/- %[24,3] mas\n
> > ~r 29 9 Dec2000 %5D +/- %[41,3] mas\n\n
> > ~r 29 0 RA %[12,9] deg Dec +%[30,8] deg\n\n
> > ~r 29 0 - RA %[12,9] deg Dec %[29,9] deg\n\n
> > ~r 52 8 RA mean epoch: %s\n
> > ~r 61 8 Dec mean epoch: %s\n
> > ~r100 2 %s used observations\n\n
> > ~b117 8 muRA : %s +/- %[129,4] mas/y\n
> > ~b134 8 muDec : %s +/- %[145,4] mas/y\n
> > ~r113 2 \nfrom %s catalogues\n
> > ~b 70 6 \nR_u3 : %s +/- %[86,5]\n
> > ~b163 6 J : %s +/- %[171,4]\n
> > ~b197 6 Ks : %s +/- %[205,4]\n
> >
> > epoch 2000
> > type 6
> > goto spaces # Ignore extra spaces in 'go to'
> > goto case # Ignore upper vs. lower case in 'go to'
> > label spaces # Remove extra spaces in the labels
> > field 0.00 15.00
> > mag lim 10
> > shown 7
> > end
> > -----------cut and paste to previous line---------
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
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> >
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