I use Cates du Ciel every day it is fantastic software. I have a couple ideas that I think would be handy and would not be hard to add on.
When you right click on the chart a menu item to copy the current coordinates to the clip board. When you right click and open the details page for Asteroids, Comets and Planets please add the orbital velocity in km/s , also list the orbital elements. v = 42.1219 * sqrt(1/r - 1/2a) ( Page 238 Astronomical Algorithms ) r is radial distance to the sun in AU a is the semi-major axis in AU Download the MPCORB in zip or tgz format to save bandwidth and time. The DAT file is about 70MB and the zip is around 21MB ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/MPCORB/MPCORB.ZIP http://www.astro.cz/mpcorb/MPCORB.ZIP after downloading a DSS FITS can there be a save FITS option so you don't have to download that same fits again later. The next time you click the DSS download button it checks to see if you already have a local copy and asks you to use the local or download and replace. Can create a database table with RA DEC and FOV and with DSS source that are saved local. Sometimes I use CDC in remote location with out net access and having a local copy of the FITS would be super handy. I just want to say again thank you for CDC. I have other Ideas too if this is right place to post them. Tony Farkas Okinawa, Japan
