Under the "Miscellaneous "extra" files for use with Guide" URL, I found the following instructions:

""" (27 January 2005, updated 24 Mar 2008) Use of the 'current' GCVS (General Catalogue of Variable Stars): Guide currently uses an older version of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars (the one available when the CDs were pressed). The current GCVS includes many corrections, and if you're at all avid about variable stars, you'll want to use it in place of the version currently used by Guide. John Greaves has provided a file that enables display of the current GCVS in Guide.

To do this, you should download the current GCVS (about 6 MBytes) from its home at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in St. Petersburg. UnZIP it in your Guide folder. Then download this file to your Guide folder (about 1 KByte) and unZIP it. This will enable display of the current GCVS when next you start Guide. Look under Extras... Toggle User Added Datasets, and "Current GCVS" will appear among the entries.

You should also go into Display... Data Shown, and turn variables off in that dialog. This will shut off Guide's built-in variable star data, leaving only the current GCVS variable stars."""

Anyway, I downloaded the current GCVS file which was NOT iii.dat Zipped. The file was named iii.dat

I downloaded the other small file as suggested above. Unzipped to Guide directory. Started Guide8 and found that when I go to "Toggles User Added Datasets" that "Current GCVS" did NOT show up. Went back and renamed iii.dat file to GCVS.dat. Still nothing. I assume that the Zipped GCVS files is slightly different when unzipped.

When I shut off Guide's GCVS variable star data a few variables do show up which is puzzling because where is that data coming from?

In conclusion, I need the latest GCVS zipped file. Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Chris. Spratt
Victoria, BC