cspratt2001 Nov 4, 2009
--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com, Bill J Gray <pluto@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> Hmmm... perhaps the best way to handle that problem
> is as follows.
>
> Start up Guide, and hit ':'. This will cause Guide
> to display a chart of the world with the nearest solar
> eclipse.
>
> Zoom in on the Canary Islands. Use Extras... Toggle
> User-Added Datasets. Select "MPC Stations"; turn it
> On, with labels showing.
>
> If you're lucky, your remote observatory will show
> up; right-click on the symbol shown for it, and you'll
> get the name and MPC three-character code for it.
>
> If not, right-click on the nearest observatory,
> and use its code for the nonce. That's probably a
> good way to start out; if you use that nearest code
> and still have problems, it'll be time to dig deeper
> into why those problems are happening.
>
> If you really want a code of your own, there are
> two routes. One is to submit data to MPC and they'll
> assign you a code. Or, you can (temporarily) make
> up your own three-character code. To do this, edit
> the file 'obscodes.htm' and look for the line
> corresponding to the nearest existing MPC station.
> It might look like this:
>
> J24 343.557190.881661+0.470499Observatorio Altamira
>
> This says that (J24) Observatorio Altamira is
> at East longitude 343.55719 (known to most of us as
> West longitude 16.44281), at parallax constants
> rho_cos_phi .881661, rho_sin_phi +.470499. Converting
> parallax constants to and from latitude and altitude
> above sea level is slightly unpleasant and probably
> not really justified for what we're doing here.
> Instead, just take the line for the nearest observatory
> and change (say) J24 to, say, ZZZ. ("Official" MPC
> codes don't start with Z; use ZZZ, and you can avoid
> collision with any "real" MPC code.) Change the
> observatory name as well, of course. Then add your
> newly-created line to 'stations.txt'.
>
> -- Bill
>