Hi Jason,
Gary Kopff here from Wildcard Innovations.
Rather than use MODE TOUR, I would recommend you consider using
a special feature of MODE CATALOG to view your USER OBJECTS
in some user-defined order.
Objects are accessed by the same way from the USER OBJECTS catalog
as any other catalog, namely by use of the Intelligent Editing System,
whereby one uses both the DIAL and ENTER button to spell out the
name of the object a letter at a time and the Intelligent
Editing System performs "word completion" as you progress.
As an special feature, when you are in GUIDE mode, you
can spin the DIAL one click anti-clockwise and Argo
Navis allows you to retrieve the previous object in that
catalog or you can spin it one click clockwise to
retrieve the next object.
Argo Navis stores objects in lexicographic (dictionary)
rather than numerical order. For example, consider the
Messier objects. Rather than being stored in numerical order
as M1, M2, M3, etc. Argo Navis internally stores them in
dictionary order as M1, M10, M100, M101, M102, .... M2, M20,
M21, .... etc.
If you would like to view the objects in some other order,
you might consider creating your own User Catalog with the
names prefixed with a designation according to the order you
want to observe them in.
For example, say you want them sorted in RA order, here would
be the first couple of possible entries in a User Catalog file -
001 M110 | 00:40.4 | +41:41 | GALAXY | 8.5 | COMPANION OF M31
002 M31 | 00:42.7 | +41:16 | GALAXY | 3.4 | ANDROMEDA GALAXY
etc.
To access the catalog in the order you specified, do the following -
Enter MODE CATALOG, DIAL up the USER CATALOG and then
use the DIAL and ENTER button to access "001 M110".
Argo Navis will then GUIDE you to it. To access the next object,
just spin the DIAL one detent click clockwise and you will then
be guided to "002 M31" and so on.
You might want to consider the third party software product
called Astroplanner that allows you to create and download Argo
Navis user catalog entries directly into the unit, drawing upon
its database of millions of objects. This includes objects
such as the NGC database so you don't need to manually
re-enter them again. See
http://www.ilangainc.com/astroplanner/
The popular SkyTools program also supports Argo Navis. See
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Both programs are very affordable and Astroplanner has name
prefix support so you can create lists in some pre-defined
order. Argo Navis owner, Jean-Paul Richard, describes this
procedure using Astroplanner -
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jean-Paul Richard
The use of a prefix as indicated by Gary can (also) give the
user catalog a structure and "folders" if you wish. The program
AstroPlanner makes it easy to do that. In that way, you can send
to AN many list of objects (plans), each list having a different
prefix and its objects being grouped together by that specific
prefix in your user object catalog. I describe the procedure
below. I regret that this write up is a bit long but when you
are trying to do something for the first time, it seems no
information detail is superfluous.
With AP, I use the following procedure:
First I create a plan (list of objects).
I order the item in the plan by RA (any ordering can be chosen here).
At that point, there are two options:
1-You can download your list of objects directly to AN using
the menu "Telescope/Download Plan to Argo Navis" or to a text file
using "File/Export/Argo Navis User Catalog" that can be
downloaded to AN with Argonaut. In each of these menu you have
the option of adding the prefix. In either case, the prefix will show
in the AN but will not show in your laptop or in a printed list of the
plan used in the field.
2- For the second option,
From within AstroPlanner, I run a script "Argo_Navis_prefix"
specifically design to add in the ID column of your plan a sequence
That scrip is downloaded from the menu
Script/UserContributedScripts/download.
In the window that appears, you select the line: Argo Navis Prefix
dated 7/12/2007
by clicking on that line and click on download. The script is download.
Now go to Script/Edit script, in the vertical window at the left, select
the
script by clicking on it, check the little box in the lower left saying
"include in script menu" and click execute. The window to add the
prefix opens up. I always add the prefix in the Id column by selecting
in that window both ID and "prefix content" so the prefix will be
added to the ID column but the rest of the ID will also show.
In the prefix label I will select "[a]CS " for a carbon star catalog.
The space at the right of CS is added to put a space between the
prefix and the ID.
In the modified ID column, you now have XXxx where XX are
two letters referring to the specific plan you are working with,
for example DS for double stars, CS for carbon stars and xx is
the letter sequence aa, ab, ac....
ba,bc....and so on as far as zz (up to 676 objects).
Then I export the plan to a txt file using
file / export / Argo Navis User Catalog
In that export operation, I do not insert any additional prefix because
the plan already includes the XXxx prefixes.
Then, I use Argonaut to download that plan to the AN.
In the field, you can use your laptop or a printed version of the plan,
and, with AN in user catalog mode, you find your plan under XX
and the desired object of that plan under XXxx.
In you AN, the plan is found under user catalog, and the two
first letters showing for the objects in that plan are
XX (CS for your carbon star list for example)
It works wonder.
AP makes it very easy to prepare list of object with prefixes very
rapidly and AN is a wonderful tool.
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Thanks again for the post.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au
MODE CATALOG and pre-sorted observing lists
