Welcome to ASTEROID 3.0
ASTEROID 3.0 is a program designed to display the position of
asteroids in the night sky.
This is intended to allow telescoped users to find and follow them.
Sorry, this is NOT a 'planetarium' for pretty pictures!
It has one purpose only...
Find those Asteroids!
This is an Alpha release, meaning that it is not yet
complete and some functions will not work.
G'day,
Many helpful details about ASTEROID 3.0 can be found via the online
help system. Menu items are explained and links are included to
access further information.
Up to three hyperlinks (computer buzzword) may be provided to reach
further information.
To select a LINK from the boxes displayed below
press the number keys 1, 2 or 3 for the item shown.
RETURN selects the first item (box 1).
To get to the previous page, press ESCAPE.
To exit, press function key F1, or try pressing ESCAPE until you do.
Click on the Menu Header (above) with the mouse, or press
the ALT key plus the heading's first letter.
FILE - for key file loading and saving details.
LOCATION - sets up a geographic location and time zone,
CATALOG - view the main Star catalogs,
PLANET - browse the planet/asteroid catalog,
EPHEMERIS - calculate positions over many days,
STARMAP - change display parameters here.
TELESCOPE - place your telescope & CCD details here,
APPULSES - Find out when stars and planets meet.
OPTIONS - sets up optional items.
Each menu presents a new window and a number
of items to select or edit on the left. Use the arrow keys
to move among the selections and press RETURN
to edit or select the highlighted option.
The basic display is a star chart. Initially it is a whole sky view
showing about 7,000 stars to 6.4 magnitude, 3000 planets and asteroids,
and a coordinate grid in a fetching shade of blue.
Asteroids are shown as bright red dots in this overview. There should
be around 3000 dots; please count them to make sure!
As you Zoom in, the asteroids are depicted as + marks with a brightness
tailored to the visible magnitude. All asteroids are shown, even if
they are below the magnitude of the dimmest stars, so that they can
be found and followed by CCD if necessary.
The Sun is shown as a small RED circle.
The Moon is a small WHITE circle.
At the bottom of the screen there are a number of buttons to click
on with the mouse, or activated with the function keys F1 to F10.
F1 - HELP - context sensitive help at the touch of a button (or F1)
F2 - PAN - realign screen centre if cursor has moved
F3 - ZOOMOUT - Zoom out to view a wider piece of sky
F4 - ZOOMIN - Zoom in closer to look at a smaller field of view
F5 - STAR? - place cursor over a star to see its details
F6 - PLANET? - place cursor over an asteroid to identify it
F7 - TRACK? - identify a point on a empheris track (not implemented)
F8 - WORDS - place text at any place on screen. (not done yet!)
F9 - NOTES - add comments to the notes.txt file
F10 FILE - copy screen to an image file, PCX or TGA format
Beside the Skymap there is a sidebar with a number of buttons.
They form a quick select for some skymap options.
# - toggle the display of the coordinate grid
Cat - swap star catalogs between Hipparcos and PPM
Ast - toggle display of planets and asteroids
ID - display identity of nearest star and planet at the cursor
Con - toggle constellation boundaries and names
N/S - toggle North/South hemisphere views
Tel - toggle TELESCOPE display (enlarged view at cursor position)
Lck - toggle cursor Lock.
Normally the cursor is positioned with the arrow keys (left right up down).
Pressing the 'Lck' button allows you to move the mouse arrow to a new map
location, and pressing the SPACE BAR will instantly move the cursor to the
mouse position. Press 'Lck' again to restore normal functions.
Asteroid 3.0 contains a built-in telescope for enlarged views of the
heavens. Press the 'Tel' button on the sidebar (or press the 't' key)
to toggle the telescope on or off. The telescope 'skin' can be altered by
supplying your own copies of the skin data. See teleskin.txt for details.
The '3' and '4' keys will zoom the telescope Out or In.
The FOV, field of view, is displayed in deg. min. sec format.
Other options are available by pressing the telescope controls, such as
cursor crosshairs, ccd frame and appulse selector, etc. You can even show
the asteroid movement over a 24hr period with the 'Day+' or 'd' key.
The telescope view is recentred by pressing F2.
Information lists displayed in the Location, Star Catalog, Planet,
Ephemeris, Telescope and Appulse menus may be saved as text files
on disk. The default filename is NOTES.TXT and new information is
APPENDED to the end of this file.
The screen display can be saved as a 256 colour PCX file or a 24 bit
truecolour TGA file with the F10 key. The file name is currently derived
from the current planet name and a number from 0 to 9 in a mysterious way
that I have yet to standardize!
Make sure that the SAVE AS options are checked in the OPTIONS menu!
Umm.. There isn't any..
I save the information I need in the NOTES.TXT file and the screen views
with the F10 keys and use other programs to print them as needed.
I'm not clever enough to do this myself, and graphics programs like
Paint Shop Pro do a much better job, plus allowing further editing
if required.
Use this menu to load and save CONFIG files (xxx.CFG) and set
up user input files for new asteroids/planets/comets and set the
default catalogs to load at startup.
I currently use the default names for asteroid and star catalogs
instead of the items here, but future revisions may use them.
Select your location from a list or edit the list to define your
latitude, longitude and time zone. These details effect the
calculation of Siderial time (SidHr) displayed on the top RHS of
the screen and the Julian Day number computed from the PC's local
time.
Setting a new location may result in a recalculation if the Julian
Day number has changed.
The locations are loaded from a text file PLACE.TXT that you can
edit as needed.
The star catalog is selected from PPM (Positions and Proper Motions)
catalog or the Hipparcos star catalog. The default magnitude limit
is 7.0 for HIP and 7.2 for PPM to display about 15,000 stars.
Alternatively, load the full catalogues for around 120,000 stars.
The contents of the catalog is listed in J2000 coordinates and may be
displayed in catalog order or strict R.A. order. (eventually...)
Having selected a star, you can then F4 GOTO that star in the skymap.
Access to the TYCHO star catalogs will be available soon.
This menu item lists the planets/asteroids currently in memory.
The asteroids elements are displayed and may be edited.
To find a particular asteroid, select it by file number, or
asteroid number, or asteroid name (it must match exactly) or find
it in the listing and click on the small button beside the entry.
Selecting an asteroid in this way automatically puts it in the
user list.
Press the GOTO button to switch to its location in the starmap.
This menu gives you the option of generating the positions of
planets over many days and displaying the track on a starmap.
The calculations can be saved in text files or displayed on the
star chart. (future)
Here we can define the look and feel of the displayed starmap.
You can set it for Northern or Southern orientation and switch
on parameters such as coordinate grids, constellation names and
other visible objects.
Most of these settings are duplicated by the starmap buttons.
Put Your telescope details here and set up a CCD display.
The telescope view can by switched from here as well as the
display of the CCD field of view within the telescope view.
Many common CCD systems are displayed. Select the one you want...
Use this section to generate a list of conjunctions or appulses
when solar system objects appear close to stars and may therefore
be easy to identify.
An APPULSE is the close apparent position of a planet with another
planet or star in the visible sky. It is also known as a
CONJUNCTION.
In determining conjunctions or appulses, no account is taken of
the proximity of the sun or if it appears only in daylight.
This menu allows the user to select whether the screen dumps will be in 256 colour PCX files or 24bit truecolour TGA.
OPTIONS: - SAVE AS PCX
There is no menu for Quit!!
This is simply a way to press ESCAPE and back out of what you are
doing. Pressing this with just the skymap displayed will allow
you to exit the program after saving the current configuration.
Start up file containing asteroid data.
The default file is ASTDAT.BIN which comes with the program.
It was derived from ASTORB.DAT, the asteroid database produced
by Lowell Observatory. Using utilities available from the author
it is possible to update this file later and give it a different
name and even store it in a different place.
Place the new name here.
Alpha release note: This yet to be fully implemented.
Text file with User Asteroid data.
Updated elements for new asteroids or comets (or even planets)
can be used with this program by inputting an ASCII text file
that the user can edit. This is especially useful for comets or
recently discovered asteroids, provided you know the orbital
elements.
Place the name of your file here.
Note: If the INPUT PATH is set and ENABLED in the OPTIONS menu,
make sure that it is present in the specified directory.
Alpha release note: The PATH options are not yet enabled.
Load and RECALCULATE Asteroid database.
You can reload the asteroid database at any time.
Change the ASTEROID MAG option below to alter magnitude limit
of asteroids loaded into memory.
Change the START ASTEROID option below to reload the database
at a new position in the file.
This option performs a recalculation and removes the USER objects
from memory. Be sure to save the USER file first!
The number of the asteroid to commence reading the database file.
The asteroids will be reloaded, starting with this number, up to
a maximimum of around 3000 objects.
Enter the minimum brightness of an asteroid to read from the
asteroid database.
Currently, this corresponds to the standard magnitude ' H ' in
the asteroids orbital elements.
In a future release, this will be changed to the visible
magnitude instead.
Load and recalculate Users Asteroids.
Every time you select an asteroid in the planet menu, it will
be placed in the USER FILE up to a maximum of 64.
User defined asteroids are displayed GREEN in the planet list.
If you have previously saved or edited the USER FILE, this
option will load the data into memory and calculate ephemerides.
Use this mechanism to add comets or new asteroids to the program.
Any USER asteroid already in memory will have its elements updated.
The other objects are placed at the end of the list.
Save User asteroids in a text file.
Every time you select an asteroid in the planet menu, it will
be placed in the USER FILE up to a maximum of 64.
User defined asteroids are displayed GREEN in the planet list.
If you have highlighted a number of asteroids, this option will
save their orbital details to a text file you can later edit.
The number of objects in the USER file.
This is provided for information only.
Name (8 characters) of the project.
Specifies a file name prefix describing the project and its
configuration file.
The program will use this name to create a configuration project
file (*.CFG) in the current directory. Please use extension (.CFG).
Load new Project configuration file and updates the program.
All options and menu selections take the values when the project
was last saved.
Save current state in project file.
The current planet, star, options etc are saved and the project file
overwritten with the new values.
All options and menu selections are stored in the project file.
File Entry number for Observatories the you wish to load.
Pick from the list of observatories or edit it to make your own.
Don't forget to press F2 SAVE to store it and make it the default.
Observatory code assigned by the Minor Planet Centre (if applicable).
If the observatory has not been asigned a special code number,
just use zero.
Please don't make up a number, since it could already be given to
another observer!
Description or Name of Observatory.
This descriptive text will appear on screen and on your output files
so make it something others can use to identify your observatory.
Location within a Country or State.
Room for the street address or locality.
Says it all, really.
LOCATION
Geographic Longitude Westward (East -) of observatory.
For example, a place in Australia would be -140.0, UK/Africa 0.0
or for North or South America it could be +120.0
Geographic Latitude North +, South -.
LOCATIONHours AHEAD of GMT (eg. Australia +10.0, U.S.A. -8.0)
LOCATION
Julian Day Number used for Calculation.
The current time and date are used to calculate asteroid positions
when the program starts. This option provides a means of obtaining
asteroid positions at some other time.
If you change this and press SAVE, the asteroid database
is recalculated.
Use the PC System Clock for asteroid position calculations.
This option will establish the computers real time clock as
the date and time for asteroid position calculations.
Use this to update the displayed Siderial Time and Julian Day.
Select the year for a new Date and asteroid calculation updates.
LOCATIONSelect a new month.
LOCATIONA new day.
LOCATION
The hour of the day.
This is in local time (NOT Universal time).
Selects minutes of the hour.
LOCATIONThis option will prompt for a new re-calculation of asteroid positions based on the Date and Time shown on the menu items above.
LOCATION: - OBS. NUMBER
Star number in database.
This is the FILE number and IS NOT the TYC, PPM or HIP number.
When the star file number is entered here, the other fields will
be filled in with its details.
Use the GOTO option to move the skymap to centre this star.
TYC, PPM or HIP number of this Star.
This number can be edited and used to search the star list
to find and display the stars' information.
Right Ascension (2000) of Star.
CATALOGDeclination (degrees) of the star.
CATALOGMagnitude (visual) of the star.
CATALOGSpectrum code (eg. G5) if known.
CATALOG
Selects text font for star lists.
Select from Small, Normal or Huge.
Huge is generally only usefull at screen rsolutions of 800x600 or more.
Display the stars in the list window - Sorted by STAR NUMBER,
approximate RA sequence or in the optimised plotting order.
Not yet implemented.
Select star catalog magnitude limit for display i.e. 7.0 (default).
Future option.
R. A. map centre coordinate.
CATALOGDeclination central coordinate of Map
CATALOG
Star Projection, EQUATORIAL or NORMAL.
Not yet implemented.
Limiting Magnitude for charted stars. (not used)
CATALOG
Planet number in database.
This is the FILE number and IS NOT the asteroid number.
When the asteroid file number is entered here, the other fields will
be filled in with its details and the asteroid will be added to
the list of USER asteroids.
Use the GOTO option to move the skymap to centre this asteroid.
Numbered Asteroid or zero (no number) for others.
This number can be edited.
Using it with the Search button to find and display the
asteroids' information is a future feature!
Name, what else?
PLANETStandard Magnitude H
PLANETMean Anomaly at the EPOC day.
PLANETArgument of Perihelion.
PLANETLongitude of the Ascending Node.
PLANETOrbital Inclination to the Ecliptic.
PLANETOrbital Eccentricity.
PLANETPlanet movement in degrees per day.
PLANETSemi Major Axis in AU (Dist. from Sun)
PLANETReference JULIAN DATE for orbital elements.
PLANET
Orbital Period in years.
Provided for information only.
Time of Perihelion passage (Julian Day)
Provided for information only.
Select text font for planet listing.
PLANET
Display list sorted by FILE, R.A. or OPP.
FILE - list asteroids in file order.
R.A. - list asteroids in approx R.A. sequence.
OPP - list asteroids in approx opposition order.
Planets listed first are those at 180 degrees from the Sun,
either before or just after the opposition point.
Those closest to the Sun are listed last of all.
The number of entries in the ephemeris calculation.
Ten is a good round number...
Interval (days) between calculations.
Usually ephemerides are calculated in a sequence of one day, two
days, four days or five or ten day intervals.
Start Date (Julian Day) of the ephemeris calculations.
EPHEMERIS
Save the calculated ephemeris in a text file with this name.
Pressing "F2 SAVE" in the ephemeris menu will copy the displayed
data to the file specified above.
This will create a new file for the ephemeris data, or the text
will be added to the end of the file, depending on the current
value of the APPEND MODE flag.
APPEND or OVERWRITE the user-defined text file.
Pressing "F2 SAVE" in the ephemeris menu will copy the displayed
data to the file specified above.
If the APPEND MODE is on (APPEND), the text will be added to the
end of the file.
If the APPEND MODE is off (OVERWRITE), the original text (if any)
is discarded and the displayed text will be written to the file.
Generate the ephemerides of the current object using the parameters
as described in this menu.
The current object is set by the Planet menu. Selecting an asteroid
in the Planet menu will make it the "current object" and it will
be highlighted in the listing.
Use the Ephemeris menu to create a list of positions at selected
intervals. These positions can be save with function key F9, causing
the displayed data to be appended to the NOTES.TXT file.
Alternatively, pressing "F2 SAVE" will place the text in the user
supplied file name above.
Stars displayed with NORTH or SOUTH up?
STARMAPEnable/Disable RA/Dec coordinate grids.
STARMAPDisplay Constellation names?
STARMAPDo we plot asteroids or not?
STARMAPDont let the mouse change my skymap!
STARMAP
Select the Right Ascension of a desired location.
Press F4 GOTO to jump to the new position.
Select the Declinatiom of a desired location in the star map.
Press F4 GOTO to jump to this position.
Plot position of selected NGC objects.
STARMAPIdentify stars less than 25 lightyears.
STARMAPSTARMAP: - ORIENTATION
Enable the Telescope view box.
TELESCOPESize of Main mirror or Object Glass in mm.
TELESCOPEFocal Length of the telescope in mm.
TELESCOPE
Where to point the telescope in Right Ascension.
With this field set, pressing the SCOPE GOTO button will place
this coordinate at the centre of the telescope view.
Where to point the telescope in Declination.
With this field set, pressing the SCOPE GOTO button will place
this coordinate at the centre of the telescope view.
Display the view at the above location.
TELESCOPEEnable display of CCD viewing area.
TELESCOPEThe number of this device in the CCD list.
TELESCOPEThe Make and model of the CCD device.
TELESCOPEThe name of the CCD detector chip.
TELESCOPEThe horizontal (East-West) legth of the CCD detector.
TELESCOPEThe size of the CCD chip (North-South) in mm.
TELESCOPEThe number of pixels in the horizontal direction of the imaging area of the CCD.
TELESCOPEThe number of pixels (vertically) on the CCD chip.
TELESCOPEThe Field of View in minutes of arc (horizontally) of the CCD detector for the telescope described above.
TELESCOPEThe Field of View in minutes of arc (vertically) of the CCD detector for the telescope described above.
TELESCOPE: - SCOPE ENABLE
This is the current highlighted appulse/conjunction item.
An APPULSE is the close apparent position of a planet with another
planet or star in the visible sky. It is also known as a
CONJUNCTION.
In determining conjunctions or appulses, no account is taken of
the proximity of the sun or if it appears only in daylight.
If function key F4 is pressed, the star chart and telescope
will be set to look at the asteroid involved in the appulse item
specified by this number.
The distance or radius (degrees) to search for a nearby planet or star.
Only objects that are below or equal to this separation will be
treated as a conjunction and placed in the list.
Conjuctions between planets (asteroid to asteroid) will be searched
first. This will be followed by a search for nearby stars.
Enables the display of a circular separation zone in the telescope.
This zone represents the approximate search area when looking for
appulses between asteroids or asteroids and stars.
This is also useful for estimating a field of view in the telescope
remembering that the DISTANCE option specifies a RADIUS and NOT
a diameter.
Generate a list of planet/star and planet/planet appulses.
An asteroid-asteroid conjunction is indicated with 'A' in the list.
An asteroid-star appulse is indicated with a '*'.
The search will be done using the current asteroid data including
any loaded USER asteroids or comets, and the current star catalog.
A change of date, asteroids or loading a new star catalog will
make the current list of appulses useless. Please re-generate the
search after such changes.
Enable saving as a 256 colour PCX file.
OPTIONSEnable saving as 24-bit TGA files.
OPTIONS
Defines the skin file to be installed from the hard disk. This is the
skin name only - no file extension should be used. Examples are
"skinfile" or "b-planet".
The program will attach a '.skt' extension to this name and search
for "skinfile.skt" - a text file describing the skin elements for the
telescope controls and user interface buttons.
You must also supply two pictures along with the .skt file:
1. "skinfile.pcx" - a 256 colour paletted image for 8bit modes.
(this file MUST use Asteroids' default palette)
2. "skinfile.bmp" - a 24 bit true colour bitmap for hi-colour modes.
Endevours to load a new telescope skin from the hard disk using filenames
derived from the SKIN FILENAME option.
All skin files are stored in the Asteroid directory.
If the skin file does not exist, or has errors, a default skin will be used.
Enables the loading and save directories
defined in CATALOG PATH and OUTPUT PATH.
If this option is OFF, files are loaded
and saved in the directory where ASTEROID
resides.
If this is ON, the above paths will be used
and the ASTEROID directory ignored.
Information on commands and program functions.
For help at any time, press the F1 key for a brief description
of the menu or function highlighted.
More detailed help is located in the manual. ASTDOS3.DOC or ASTDOS3.HTM
ASTEROID version 3.0 Build 14 Alpha release.
Release date- 30th October 2000.
Programmer: Anthony M Hugo, Brisbane, Australia
(C) Copyright 1999, 2000. All rights reserved.
Programmed with DJGPP and Allegro 3.9.32 graphics library.
Linux version uses GCC and Allegro 3.9.32.
Windows version uses Allegro 3.9.32 and MingW32.
Asteroid database derived from ASTORB.DAT courtesy Lowell Observatory.
Star data from PPM (Positions and Proper Motions) catalogue
and the Tycho2 and Hipparcos catalogues. Thanks, guys!
Planets by Divine Providence.
This program is copyrighted freeware, NO registration fees!
If you find this program useable...
.. please consider sending a postcard or email with your comments.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/3169/asteroid.html
Home site: http://www.winshop.com.au/hugo/
Email: hugo@winshop.com.au
Tony Hugo
P.O. Box 145
North Tamborine
Queensland
Australia 4272
Check out README.TXT for the latest info. (if I remembered)