Alternate object names in .ssc files

[abramson]

Hi,

I wonder if it could be possible to have alternate object names in .ssc catalogs, just as we have in .stc and .dsc catalogs. This would be useful for objects that have more than one name in the Solar System, in particular for asteroids and other small bodies, that many times have a proper name and one or more designations. As they are, Just one of these can be found with the <enter> search feature.

Regards,

Guillermo

[chris]

Yes, this is a useful feature that is long overdue. I'll add it to the 1.6.0 TODO list.

--Chris

[chris]

I have a patch for this feature. Please see this thread in the Dev Talk forum:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12654

--Chris

[abramson]

UPDATE:

Now that Chris has implemented alternative names for Solar System objects in Celestia 1.6, I decided to update my MPCORB2SSC tool. In addition, I implemented a "true" prunning by size if the selected asteroids are too many (as opposed to the proxy that kept the first asteroids in the catalog). I think there are other small corrections as well (see the readme for a changelog).

Find it at my webpage. Direct links: perl sript, win executable.

Regards,

Guillermo