[rogerg (Roger)]

Does anyone know of an algorithm that will sequence objects by proximity, minimising slew distance while still ensuring the complete set is traversed with a preference to moving in DEC then RA such that objects are observed nearest the zenith and definitely observed before they reach a western limit?

I have flashes of memories going through my mind of tree/node traversal algorithsm from university with branch distanced involved but haven't really dealt with them since so I'd be going back to a couple of text books and stating from there.

I'd like to take a set of n objects and sequence them in such a way that my slews are minimal (allowing most chance of an accurate plate solve), but such that I'm still working through in a way that I get them imaged before they go too far west in the night.

In TheSky it's very easy to retreive a set of objects filtered on suitable criteria and sequence them based on many attributes including RA and DEC, but I would prefer to be sequencing them on RA, influenced by their relative DEC positions.

Too much? too heavy? sorry! I doubt I'll get any replies to such a wacky questions anyhow..

Once finding an algorithm I'm expecting I'll have to knock up a little application to read in a CSV, do the sorting, then write out a new CSV, unless a miracle happens and there's software out there to do this, that us amateurs know of?



Thanks,
Roger.