Hi folks,
A few comments on newly-posted software, and MPCORB and FIND_ORB use,
and some foreign language changes:
NEWLY-POSTED SOFTWARE:
I've just posted updated software. The main reason for this was to
fix the problem Masaki Kouda reported, where some user-added datasets
were not properly shown.
I _did_ make one other small change that may be of interest. I have
a three-button mouse, as most of you probably do, and gave some thought
to possible uses for the middle mouse button. Clicking on the chart area
with the middle mouse button now causes you to pan _and_ zoom out one
level. As you may have seen, you can "zoom in" by dragging open a box
with the left mouse button; now, you can "zoom out" by dragging open a
box with the _middle_ mouse button. ("Zoom in" centers on a new location
and expands the box to fill the screen; "zoom out" centers on a new
location and crams the current screen into the box.)
This new function isn't easy to describe and isn't intuitive at
first, but I recommend experimenting with it. I routinely zoom in by
dragging a box with the left button, and it's been annoying not to have
a similarly easy way to zoom out.
Those with two-button mice can replace "middle mouse button" with
"left mouse button with the Shift key held down". Any ideas for Ctrl-
plus-mouse-buttons, or Shift-plus-right-mouse-button?
Also: Eric-Sven Vesting sent in a revised list of CCDs for use in
the 'CCD Frame' dialog. This file (CCDS.NAM) is part of the update file.
MPCORB USE:
Jim Kessel mentioned putting the Minor Planet Center MPCORB data in
the 'asteroid' folder. In general, I've assumed that most people run
Guide from a CD-ROM, and cannot alter files on that. So all the
assorted improvements rely on finding files in Guide's own directory
on the hard drive.
Also, be aware that two bugs appeared in MPCORB use over the last
few months. First, when (719) Albert was recovered, every asteroid
with number > 719 was offset by one, and chaos ensued; you'd click on
asteroid N and get data about asteroid N-1. Second, when MPCORB
passed the 2^16 = 65536 object count, Guide got confused and only
showed the first few hundred objects. If you see either misbehavior,
get the current Guide software from the Web site.
FIND_ORB USE:
Roger Curry asked about the observation format for Find_Orb. You
might want to send me your 'example2' file by private e-mail so I can
make a conclusive diagnosis, but I'm pretty sure you've left out the
MPC station code at the end of each observation.
Find_Orb is somewhat fussy about the observation data being exactly
in the MPC format. Normally, this is not a problem, because people
get the observation data either from MPC or from software (such as
_Charon_) that generates the data. Of course, if you try to put your
own data together, there is apt to be trouble.
Also, you mention: "I thought there might be a language problem..."
You can translate the text in Find_Orb by editing the file EFINDORB.DAT.
(Fortunately, there are only about fifty lines to translate. Find_Orb
is a small program.) If you do happen to try translating this, please
let me know; I'll post the result as part of Find_Orb.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE CHANGES:
Jean-Noel Moreau sent some revisions for the French translation of
Guide. In particular, much more of the text for "more info" for many
objects shown in Guide will now appear in French.
Giuliano Pinto translated the RELATIVI.HTM page I posted about
"including relativistic effects in orbit computations" into Italian.
This is now posted at
http://www.projectpluto.com/itarelat.htm
Incidentally, I realized I made a mistake in writing this page:
the "fix" I describe is _not_ an exact solution, just a first order
correction. It doesn't include gravitational radiation, and therefore
wouldn't be adequate for describing, say, a pulsar binary or an object
falling into a black hole. The "warning" section has been altered a
little to explain this.
-- Bill