The web page still indicates last update and new software posted as
August 8.

Any luck with getting Guide 7 to work/slew the Astro-Physics GOTO
mounts?

Chris. Spratt


"Bill J. Gray" wrote:

>
> 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
>
>
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