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What should I do if the program does not work anymore?
How
can I get the BT-Atlas catalogue or the USNO, Guide Star and Tycho-2
catalogues?
What type of map can I display with C2A?
How can I quickly switch from one database to an
other ?
I have the original Guide Star, USNO, Tycho-2 and UCAC1 catalogues
on CD-ROM. Can I read them directly from C2A?
How
to import the Bowell asteroid orbital elements file within C2A?
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| What
should I do if the program does not work anymore? |
|
After some incorrect procedures, it may happen that the saved configuration
is invalid and may prevent C2A from working properly. For instance,
an error message shows up when the program is launched.
In
such situations, the best solution is to completely delete the C2A
configuration from the Windows Registry. This can be done in two
different ways:
You can manually launch the Windows Registry Editor and delete the
key where C2A stores its parameters. To do that, go into the "Start"
menu, select the command "Run..." and type "regedit".
The Registry Editor should pop up. Then, go into the following key:
«HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\C2A\C2A pour Windows». Select
the sub-key "2.0" with the mouse left button and suppress
it using the DEL key on your keyboard (or using the command "delete"
in the contextual menu accessible from the mouse right button).
You can also use the utility « Reset.exe » which has been
installed in the same directory as the C2A program (by default «
C:\Program Files\C2A pour Windows »). This small utility allows
you to directly delete the saved C2A configuration from the Registry
database.
Once
the key has been removed from the Registry, you should be able to
run again C2A with its default parameters. If your problem is not
solved, go into the directory where C2A has been installed (« C:\Program
Files\C2A pour Windows » by default) and try to remove the two files
« C2a.ac » and « C2a.ref ». |
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| How
can I get the BT-Atlas catalogue or the USNO, Guide Star, Tycho-2
and UCAC1 catalogues? |
|
The BT-Atlas
catalogue is a commercial product that can be obtained from the
Ciel & Espace magazine (http://www.cieletespace.fr)
under the form of a CD-ROM. This CD-ROM contains 4649 images that
can be directly handled by C2A (the catalogue by itself is directly
integrated with C2A).
The Tycho-2
can be ordered from the following site: http://astro.estec.esa.nl/Hipparcos/catalog.html.
The site
http://www-gsss.stsci.edu/gsc/GSChome.htm
provides all the necessary information about the Guide Star catalogue.
The USNO-SA1.0
and USNO-A2.0 catalogues can be obtained from the US Naval Observatory
at http://www.usno.navy.mil/.
The UCAC1 catalogue can be ordered from the US Naval Observatory
Web Site http://ad.usno.navy.mil/ucac/.
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| What
type of map can I display with C2A? |
|
C2A for Windows can display two different types
of map:
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- Field
views. In such a map, North is at the top of the view by
default whatever is the location on the celestial sphere.
This is a convenient way to prepare field maps to prepare
observations. It is however possible to apply symmetries
and rotations to the field. Once these transformations are
set, they are used for all the views of type "field"
(symmetries and rotations can be set in the "Map"
tab of the Options dialog box). When a field view is displayed,
the following symbol appears at the top left corner of the
map. The small yellow line shows the North direction.
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- Horizon
views. In such a map, the view is positioned in such a way
that the closest horizon appears as horizontal. This map
type is well suited for displaying a global view of a cardinal
point in order to pinpoint a particular constellation. When
an Horizon view is displayed, the following symbol appears
at the top left corner of the map. The number displayed
in the symbol gives the current azimuth of the view.
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| How
can I quickly switch from one database to an other? |
| The
quickest way to switch to a different database (stars or deep
sky objects) is to click in the current map with the mouse
right button while holding the SHIFT key
on the keyboard. The following popup menu is then displayed
which allows a quick selection of the database to be displayed. |
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| I
have the original Guide Star, USNO, Tycho-2 and UCAC1 catalogues on
CD-ROM. Can I read them directly from C2A? |
| The
Tycho-2 and UCAC1 catalogues cannot
be read directly by C2A. They must be compiled first using dedicated
compilation tools that can be found in the Tools
page. Using compilers is extremly easy and provides very good performance
in terms of database access.
The
Guide Star catalogue can be directly accessed by
the C2A software. It can also be compiled in order to decrease its
size on disk.
The
USNO catalogue can be directly accessed by C2A
and does not require compilation. |
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| I
cannot display correctly the calendar in the Ephemeris or Asteroid
& Comet windows. |
| Depending
on its version, the component Mscal.ocx has some compatibility issues
with different versions of Windows. It is advised to use version
2.0.11 of C2A as a minimum. This version does not use anymore the
Mscal.ocx component.
If
you wish to continue using an older version of C2A, and if your
system has a more recent version of the Mscal.ocx component, you
will need to follow the following manual steps:
- Download
version 9.0.0.3620 of Mscal.ocx here.
- Copy
Mscal.ocx in your C:\Windows\System32 directory (or C:\Windows\system
directory if you own Windows 95 or Windows 98/Me versions of Windows).
Preserve first the older verison of the file.
- In
a DOS command window, type the command: regsvr32 Mscal.ocx
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| How
to import the Bowell asteroid orbital elements file within C2A? |
| C2A
is able to read the full Asteroid Orbital Elements Database from
Ted Bowell (see http://www.naic.edu/%7Enolan/astorb.html)
and display the position of one or several asteroids from this database.
To do this, proceed as follows:
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1.
First, download the compressed version of the Astorb.dat
file from http://www.naic.edu/%7Enolan/astorb.html
(click the link at the end of the sentence "Get a decompressed
version (Astorb.dat) via ftp by clicking on here".
You
will get a large file called astorb.dat.gz
which is 28 MBytes large, so it may take a while to download.
Uncompress this file and store the resulting file Astorb.dat
in a directory of you choice. |
| 2.
Once the Astorb.dat file is uncompressed, launch C2A
for Windows and open the Asteroids & Comets
Tool from the Tools menu (Ctrl+A
is a shortcut). |
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| 3.
In the Asteroids & Comets tool, click the
Import... button. |
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4.
In the Import dialog box, select first the Asteroids
radio button, then pick the "Bowell Format"
in the Format combo box. Finally, select
the source option "From File" and
locate the Astorb.dat file you have previously downloaded
using the small "..." button on
the right side of the text zone.
Close
the Import tool using the OK button. |
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| 5.
Because o fthe the large number of asteroids in the database,
it might take a while to import all the orbital elements (possibly
several minutes). A message is displayed in the dialog zone
of the tool. |
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| 6.
All the objects cannot be displayed in the asteroid list (there
are just too many of them...), so you will get a message at
the end of the Import process stating that all asteroids cannot
be displayed. However, all the asteroids are loaded
and you can use the Filter... button to display
the asteroid(s) you want in the list. |
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| 7.
Using the Filter... button, you can restrict
the number of asteroids to be displayed in the list. For instance,
you can ask to display only the asteroid Antiope. |
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| 8.
Select the Antiope asteroid in the list and activate
the Position check box at the bottom left of
the tool. Clock Go to to center the map on
the asteroid and Apply to save all the changes. |
 |
To clear the asteroid list (it can slow down C2A when you launch
the program), use the Clear button in the Asteroids
& Comets tool.
Note that only the steps 1 to 5 are required if you want to
load the Astorb.dat file in order to use it with Occult
Watcher. |
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