Re: [guide-user] Re: Charon

P. Clay Sherrod Nov 4, 2009

Are you running Guide with local time GMT, Zulu or what time default?

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: "cspratt2001" <cspratt@...>
To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:05 AM
Subject: [guide-user] Re: Charon


>
> Downloaded the latest Charon program. This one, for me, doesn't load.
> The earlier one even with MPC code in settings still has sun up.
>
> Chris. Spratt
> Victoria, BC
> --- 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
>>
>
>
>
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