After testing several `planetarium' programs, I decided to use CdC to
chart the paths of five historical comets, but to get around certain
limitations of its plotting capabilities (time frame, number of
objects, number of time steps, symbols), I want to plot the positions
as pseudostars in an external catalog, with the date as the "name of
object" (which hopefully would pop up when I clicked on it). I won't
go into the details of all the false starts I made, or how much time
I've wasted, but I finally arrived at a point where I thought I'd
begun to get a glimmer of the concept, but my latest effort fails as
miserably as the rest to reveal any sign of itself onscreen. This
attempt, like most, is a text file using output from four columns
of "Calendar": date, RA, dec, and `elongation' (Q.: Is that
elongation in latitude, in RA, or just arc distance from the sun?),
treated as a "comment". I put a sample of it in Courier, assigned an
arbitrary magnitude of 2.71 to all the "objects" (don't ask me why),
lined it up like this,
1 2 3 4
123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678
and called it:
"C1577test.dat":
1576 10 27;17h34m54.1s;+42�57'11";2.71;+069�14';
1576 10 28;17h35m33.5s;+42�50'21";2.71;+069�00';
1576 10 29;17h36m13.3s;+42�43'38";2.71;+068�47';
1576 10 30;17h36m53.6s;+42�37'01";2.71;+068�34';
1576 10 31;17h37m34.4s;+42�30'31";2.71;+068�21';
1576 11 01;17h38m15.7s;+42�24'07";2.71;+068�08';
1576 11 02;17h38m57.4s;+42�17'50";2.71;+067�56';
1576 11 03;17h39m39.5s;+42�11'40";2.71;+067�43';
1576 11 04;17h40m22.1s;+42�05'37";2.71;+067�31';
1576 11 05;17h41m05.1s;+41�59'41";2.71;+067�19';
1576 11 06;17h41m48.6s;+41�53'51";2.71;+067�08';
1576 11 07;17h42m32.4s;+41�48'09";2.71;+066�56';
1576 11 08;17h43m16.6s;+41�42'33";2.71;+066�45';
1576 11 09;17h44m01.3s;+41�37'05";2.71;+066�34';
1576 11 10;17h44m46.3s;+41�31'44";2.71;+066�24';
1576 11 11;17h45m31.6s;+41�26'31";2.71;+066�13';
I used the Magnitude tab of the Preferences menu to generate this
definition:
"C1577test.cdm":
; External catalog definition for Cartes du Ciel
; Plot object according to the magnitude
; Catalog : C1577test date : 9/7/04 1:58:46 PM
Active=1
Name=C1577test
File=cat\externes\C1577test\C1577test.dat
Epoch=2000
Coord=
Format=
ID=1.10
RAh=12.2
RAm=15.2
RAs=18.4
DE+=24.1
DEd=25.2
DEm=28.2
DEs=31.2
Magn=35.4
B-V=
Desc1=40.8
Desc2=
Desc3=
M.max=20 [another arbitrary figure]
So, I'm knocking off any further solo efforts to ask for help. Why
does this example, like its hapless siblings, not work?
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