Skymap 6.1 update.
Neil Clifford (clifford@astro.ox.ac.uk)
Thu, 22 Jan 1998 15:46:45 +0000 (GMT)
Hello folks,
Another skymap announcement. Rob has just sent me updates to 6.1
including a version for machines without a maths co-processor. The files
are at the ftp site in
ftp://ftp.satellite.eu.org/pub/programs/ibmpc/
where you will find sky61.zip (maths co-processor version) and
sky61nc.zip (non maths coprocessor version). In the same directory are
the auxiliary zipfile sky60aux.zip and the Hipparcos star database
files (hip8.zip, hip8idx.zip, hip9.zip, hip9idx.zip) that Jeff rightly
pointed out in a recent posting. Note that sky61.zip is in fact an
upgrade of the earlier sky61.zip I placed on the ftp site yesterday. The
file near_sky.zip that Rob refers to (below) is also at the above
location.
Some information from Rob Matson himself:
This is a quick 1 for 1 replacement for the 6.1 shareware executable I
sent you just a few hours ago. It has a simple change which makes it
easier to plot the tracks of objects like NEAR. The original
rocket-track feature assumed no times in the .TRJ file would need to be
less than zero, since this would be "before launch". The program
*accepted* negative time entries -- it just ignored them. But negative
time entries are very useful for objects like NEAR, since it allows you
to set up the trajectory so that T=0 corresponds to a point close to the
time of interest, e.g. the glint time. By allowing negative times, you
can see the track both before and after the point of interest.
I have a sample .CFG file (NEAR_LA.CFG) that shows the track as seen
from Los Angeles on Thursday night, covering a timespan that includes
the expected time of the glint -- 10:40pm PST (6:40am UTC Friday
morning). A second .CFG file (LA_ZOOM.CFG) shows the same track, but
zoomed in much closer. People can use these .CFG files as templates for
their own specific locations. All they need to do is change their site
coordinates WITHOUT changing the map time. The time has to remain 6:40
am UTC on 1998/1/23 (or the equivalent local time) since the rocket
trajectory file (NEAR_640.TRJ) is tied to the map date/time. I've
attached a zip file (NEAR_SKY.ZIP) which contains these two .CFG files
and the trajectory file.
--
Neil Clifford <neil@satellite.eu.org>
http://www.satellite.eu.org/satintro.html