Actually it is very easy to save: go ahead and open the file and then save it as it is to
Guide; once done, then open the file again and SAVE as and make sure that it saves as
"mpcorb.dat" file rather than an mpcorb.txt file.

A much easier and far shorter download is to simply go to the MPCORB files on MPC at this
time, and click on the "TODAY" file which is substantially smaller: only 1.34 meg.

Once that is open, (it is a .text file) save to somewhere on your hard drive. Open the
file once saved and then Save As "mpcorb.dat" and make sure that the file type in the save
window is set to "All Files"

You will have virtually every important NEO visible to normal telescopes that are needing
observations.....tens of thousands of them.

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: "barringtonri" <pecorp@...>
To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 3:01 PM
Subject: [guide-user] Struggling with MPC downloads


> Ahhh Man! Ever since that jerk hacked the MPC they've been struggling to set up a clean
> hack-proof mirror site. Some things are back up and running at
> http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/MPCORB.html
> but options are limited.
>
> To refresh/update the main MPCORB.DAT file, there's no longer the option to save vs
> open. It just opens. And it's impossibly large.
>
> There is a compressed version that downloads, but it's in a linux friendly GZIP format.
> Has anyone running Win XP figured out how to deal with a .GZ format?
>
> I've spent hours on GnuWin32, but in the end that turns out to be just a compression
> program, and doesn't seem to open anything.
>
> Pretty much out of business for astrometric work right now.
>
> Pete Peterson
>
>
>
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