----- Original Message -----
From: Bill J Gray
To: guide-user@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2011 5:05 AM
Subject: Re: [guide-user] Comet Garradd magnitude?



Hi Larry, Rolf,

Woodchuk wrote:
> I have the same problem.
>
> I just tried to access the MPC site directly and the message is:
>
> "We're sorry , but something went wrong. We've been notified about this
> issue and we'll take a look at it shortly"
> End quote
>
> I think the site has been down for some days which is causing the problem ????

I've not been having any issues... perhaps I just picked the right times to
access the MPC site?

Something I ought to have asked about earlier: when Guide tries to get new
comet data, it downloads this file:

http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/Soft02Cmt.txt

In fact, the "Click to download updated comet data and add it to Guide"
simply calls a separate program to download that file, save it, and then
import the data from it. You can instead download the file in your browser,
save it, and then click on the "Add MPC asteroids/comets" line at the bottom
of the dialog. Guide will present you with a file-selection dialog; pick
the file you've saved, and it'll import the elements.

But if you find that the browser can get the file while Guide can't, please
let me know. Or if neither can access the file. In the former case, we can
assume an issue in the 'tear2.exe' program Guide uses to grab files on-line
(which, incidentally, would mean issues in updating artificial satellite
elements and grabbing star catalog data). In the latter case, Guide is
presumably getting the MPC comet data, but then running into issues in merging
it with its existing comet data. Either way, I'd want to know about it... as
I wrote above, I really should have thought of this diagnostic step earlier.

-- Bill




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