saving star data bases in a different location

[Axel Thomas]

Hi Han,
I would propose to add an option to save star data bases in a different location than in the program folder.
Reason: star data bases can be pretty large and on smaller hard disks the c: partition is often not too large. This would allow for better organization of data and should be a relatively minor code change.
Being able to save the star data bases in a different location (as already possible with the minor planet data base) would allow to better organize data.

cs Axel

[han.k]

Hi Axel,

I have considered that idea in the past. It has to be a fixed location (sub directory) because it should work without having to configure it. In the past I have decided to keep it all in one directory. Changing could result in problems for existing users. But note you can specify an other star database folder using the command line option -d. That doesn't help much if your using a program like CCDCiel or Nina.

Cheers, Han

[Axel Thomas]

Hi Han,
as other data such as the the minor planet data base have optional paths I anticipated that this would be no problem. I am doing my share of programming myself so I assumed setting a data base path would be simple.
Thanks for the hint with the command line option. I had not considered that so far, might be an alternative when working with my notebook which has only a small hard disk and the star data base would be stored on an external drive.

cs Axel

[han.k]

You could also move both so ASTAP and the star database to the external drive. They can be placed anywhere you like. In most programs you can specify the path to ASTAP.

[Axel Thomas]

Also an interesting idea.
Looking at the command line option it appears that I have to specify each file individually with the -f option. There is no wildcard option to run several images from one directory with one command?

[Axel Thomas]

I tried but was not able to solve an image :
PLTSOLVD=F
CMDLINE=C:\Programme\astap\astap.exe -f C:\astro\veränderliche\And\And_V460\V460_And_0150.fits -ra 38.85 -spd 135.93 -fov 0.8 -r 50 -d E:\V50
DIMENSIONS=3056 x 3056
In the documentation I did find no information what the DIMENSION message means. Any idea what might have gone wrong?
cs Axel

[han.k]

Command line looks good to me.

Dimensions are width x height in pixels

You could try to replace -fov 0.8 by -fov 0 to test all FOV sizes. FOV is normally the height of the images in degrees.

This line will do a fully blind solve but it will take time:

c:\Programme\astap\astap.exe -f C:\astro\veränderliche\And\And_V460\V460_And_0150.fits -ra 38.85 -spd 135.93 -fov 0 -r 180 -d E:\V50

Note:
-d e:\V50 This specifies a path
-D v50 This specifies the V50

Wildcards are not possible with the command line. Only in the program it self as "batch solve" (under tools)

cs Han

[Axel Thomas]

-fov 0 and -r 180 worked just fine. Using the exact image size of 1.3° and -r 10 took less than a second. It was however mainly a test to use an external hard drive for the star data base which also worked just fine. Thanks!
cs Axel