TA e-circular

<title>TA e-circular</title>
<pre>
THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 677       1992 Oct 17 16.06UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074
TELEX: 9312111261 Answerback: TA G      TELECOM GOLD: 10074:MIK2885
GMH at UK.AC.RUTHERFORD.STARLINK.ASTROPHYSICS  STARLINK: RLSAC::GMH
GMH at UK.AC.CAM.ASTRONOMY.STARLINK            STARLINK: CAVAD::GMH
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FINDERS.EXE/FINDVGA.EXE
Further to the announcement of a new version (3.0a) of FINDERS.EXE
on E669, a separate program, designated FINDVGA.EXE (Version 3.1a),
has been developed by Nick James for those with VGA screens. The
two programs will continue in parallel to cater for those with
differing hardware.
FINDVGA.EXE provides high quality colour graphics. In addition, if
a mouse driver is detected at the start of the program, it enables
the user to move on to any object in the field and obtain the RA
and DEC by clicking the mouse. Alternatively the cursor movement
can provide the same result. This display of position is only
available where the coordinates of the central point of the chart
are held in the data file (the '-C' line mentioned on E675 and
included in the FG Sge chart).
The '-C' lines are being included in all charts from FG Sge onwards
and these are being stored in a new data file 'VAR2.LOG'. Older
charts without such positional data are now stored in 'VAR1.LOG'.
A new '-T' line is also being added to new charts which enables
FINDVGA.EXE to display the type of variable or other notes
immediately under the magnitude range.

To summarise:

FINDERS.EXE displays charts from either VAR1.LOG or VAR2.LOG in
black and white only and without RA and DEC but with X and Y values
which can be converted (see E669). No 'type' line is shown.
When reading VAR2.LOG error messages can be displayed where it
encounters '-C' or '-T' lines but this should not prevent the
basic charts being displayed.

FINDVGA.EXE displays charts from either VAR1.LOG or VAR2.LOG in
colour. There are options to read out RA and DEC on any field
object and to display the variable type where entries in VAR2.LOG
are being used.

A full list of both program and their associated files follows.
The complete set is available for #12 (or #4 if upgrading from
any existing version of program or data file):

FINDERS.EXE    78864                            19-06-92         )
FINDVGA.EXE    69920                            13-10-92         )
VAR1.LOG       57028 (Data File for Variables)  25-08-92         )
                     76 charts included. X/Y read out.
VAR2.LOG        3237 (Data File for Variables)  10-10-92         )
                      4 charts included. RA/DEC read out.
GALAXY.LOG      3323 (Data File for Galaxies )  15-03-92         )
                      6 charts  included.
EQ2XY.EXE      12080 XY conversion to RA/DEC    23-06-92         )

Guy M Hurst
</pre>