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July 26 2010

MpcReader - retrieve ephemerides in MPC format from the web
(see http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Soft00.html)

You can download MpcReader at https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcreader/files

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INFO: If you do not want to use the software (MpcReader), you could download the orbital data for comets and asteroids in KStars format right here. Just get the files and store it in your KStars directory (could be ~/.kde4/share/apps/kstars/ or similar).

The files ar updated once a week.

All comets.dat in KStars format.

All asteroids.dat in KStars format.

For all other packages you have to go to http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Soft00.html.

Then why should i use MpcReader? I don't know why YOU should use it. ;)
I need it for the weekly automatically updates of all orbital data for my software packages on different computers. I have not the time to download the files every week and distribute it to four computers (for TheSky, xephem, guide8). AND it converts MPC data to my little linux toy (KSTAR) data format. That's all. :)
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MpcReader is just a little toy to retrieve comet and asteroid orbital data in MPC format from the web and store it on your computer in different formats. The data is fetched from the Minor Planet Center at the 'Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)'. It's written in C#/Gtk# and therefore you must have mono installed to run this software. With MpcReader you could store the orbital data on your pc for all software packages available on the MPC site and it also converts plain MPC data to the format needed for KStars.

Someone could fetch orbital data for:

    * Observable comets
    * Observable critical-list numbered minor planets
    * Observable distant minor planets (including Centaurs and transneptunians)
    * Observable unusual minor planets (including NEOs)
    * Bright minor planets at opposition (current year)

Data is available for this software packages:

    * MPC format
    * SkyMap (SkyMap Software)
    * Guide (Project Pluto)
    * xephem (E. Downey)
    * Home Planet (J. Walker)
    * MyStars! (Relative Data Products)
    * TheSky (Software Bisque)
    * Starry Night (Sienna Software)
    * Deep Space (D. S. Chandler)
    * PC-TCS (D. Harvey)
    * Earth Centered Universe (Nova Astronomics)
    * Dance of the Planets (ARC)
    * MegaStar V4.x (E.L.B. Software)
    * SkyChart III (Southern Stars Software)
    * Voyager II (Carina Software)
    * SkyTools (CapellaSoft)
    * Autostar (Meade Instruments)

and finally for KStars.

First download and install mono.

Then download MpcReaderCS at https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcreader/files

Unpack the files whereever you want.

unzip MpcReaderCS-windows.zip
or
tar xvzf MpcReaderCS-linux.tar.gz

Of course you can fetch the sources and compile it with MonoDevelop , but that's another story ;)

Start MpcReaderCS with mono MpcReaderCS.exe
Fetching and converting data is very simple. Just select the data you want and click on "fetch data". If "copy to path" is'nt checked, the file(s) is/are stored in the same directory where MpcReaderCS.exe resides otherwise they end up in the selected directory.

If you dont't want a gui (the gui is only a simple wrapper around the command line version), just type mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --help at the command line and you get lot's of command line options.

Simple command line help.
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --help

Simple command line for obtaining comets from MPC-website and storing data in kstars format.
Verbose output and no modification of the output file name.
Use it and you should end with a file named 'SoftCmt.txt' in the same directory.
(if you have an active internet connection)
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false

Fetch data and store it in the default KStars directory.
Shortcut for mono MpcReaderCS.exe --type:all --verbose:false --output:~/.kde4/share/apps/kstars/comets.dat,~/.kde4/share/apps/kstars/asteroids.dat
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --kstarsonly:true

Here we get orbital data for bright minor planets.
See http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Soft00.html
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:1 --verbose:false

Same as above. But here we get orbital data for bright minor planets and comets .
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:0,1 --verbose:false --split:true

Same as above. But here we get all data from MPC site (comet data and asteroids data).
KStars data is stored in two separate files ('comets.dat' and 'asteroids.dat').
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:all --verbose:false --output:comets.dat,asteroids.dat

Same as above. But here the data is stored in single files.
(SoftCmt.txt,SoftBright.txt,SoftCritList.txt,SoftDistant.txt,SoftUnusual.txt)
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:all --verbose:false --split:true

Simple command line for obtaining raw data from MPC-website.
Mpc data is stored in two separate files ('comets.dat' and 'asteroids.dat').
(If you have an active internet connection).
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:all --soft:0 --verbose:false

Same as above. But here the data is stored in single files.
(Soft00Cmt.txt,Soft00Bright.txt,Soft00CritList.txt,Soft00Distant.txt,Soft00Unusual.txt).
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:all --soft:0 --verbose:false --split:true

Simple command line for obtaining data from raw MPC-data files.
KStars data is stored in two separate files ('comets.dat' and 'asteroids.dat').
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --soft:kstarsA --input:Soft00Cmt.txt,Soft00Bright.txt,Soft00CritList.txt,Soft00Distant.txt,Soft00Unusual.txt --output:comets.dat,asteroids.dat --verbose:false

Same as above. But here the data is stored in single files.
(SoftCmt.txt,SoftBright.txt,SoftCritList.txt,SoftDistant.txt,SoftUnusual.txt)
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --soft:kstarsA --input:Soft00Cmt.txt,Soft00Bright.txt,Soft00CritList.txt,Soft00Distant.txt,Soft00Unusual.txt --split:true --verbose:false

Simple command line for obtaining data from MPC-website and storing it in THE SKY format.
Verbose output and no modification of the output file name.
Use it and you should end with a file named 'Soft06Cmt.txt' in the same directory
(If you have an active internet connection)
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --soft:thesky

Same as above. But here we get all data from MPC site (comet data and asteroids data).
THESKY data is stored in two separate files ('comets.dat' and 'asteroids.dat').
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:all --soft:thesky --verbose:false --output:comets.dat,asteroids.dat

Same as above. But here the data is stored in single files.
(Soft06Cmt.txt,Soft06Bright.txt,Soft06CritList.txt,Soft06Distant.txt,Soft06Unusual.txt).
mono MpcReaderCS.exe --gui:false --type:all --soft:guide --verbose:false --split:true

Please email all questions, suggestions, bugs to jeamydotleeatgmaildotcom

More to come... ;)

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Copyright (c) <2009,2010> <Jeamy Lee, Austria>
MpcReader - retrieve ephemerides in MPC format from the web

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