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FAQ

I get the message "Date outside valid interval for BdL computation. Solar System objects will not be displayed."

In order to fix the problem, go into the Options dialog box (F7 keyboard shortcut) and select the tab SolSys. In the zone Planetary Positions, you just have to select the option SLP98 then to close the dialog box with the OK button.

The option BDL82 only covers the period 1987 to 2009 while the option SLP98 goes up to 2020.

What should I do if the program does not work anymore?

After some incorrect procedures, it may happen that the saved configuration is invalid and may prevent C2A from working properly. For instance, an error message shows up when the program is launched.

In such situations, the best solution is to completely delete the C2A configuration from the Windows Registry. This can be done in two different ways:

• You can use the utility Reset.exe which has been installed in the same directory as the C2A program (by default C:\Program Files\C2A). This small utility allows you to directly delete the saved C2A configuration from the Registry database. If your problem is not solved, go into the directory where C2A stores its temporary files (C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\C2aw) and try to remove the two files C2a.ac et C2a.ref./li>
• You can manually launch the Windows Registry Editor and delete the key where C2A stores its parameters. To do that, go into the Start menu, select the command Run... and type regedit. The Registry Editor should pop up. Then go into the following key:
  « HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\C2A\C2A pour Windows ».
  Select the sub-key "2.0" with the mouse left button and suppress it using the DEL key on your keyboard (or using the command delete in the contextual menu accessible from the mouse right button). Once the key has been removed from the Registry, you should be able to run again C2A with its default parameters.

How can I get the USNO and UCAC catalogues?

The catalogues USNO-SA1.0 and USNO-A2.0 as well as the UCAC catalogues can be obtained from the US Naval Observatory site.

What type of map can I display with C2A?

C2A can display two different types of map:

• Field views. In such a map, North is at the top of the view by default whatever is your field of view on the celestial sphere. This is a convenient way to view field maps in order to prepare observations. It is however possible to apply symmetries and rotations to the field. Once these transformations are set, they are used for all the views of type Field (symmetries and rotations can be set in the Map tab of the Options dialog box). When a Field view is displayed, the symbol shown on the right appears at the top left corner of the map. The small yellow line shows the North direction.
• Horizon views. In this type of map, the view is positioned in such a way that the closest horizon is in the direction of the bottom of the screen. This map type is well suited for displaying a global view of a cardinal point in order to pinpoint a particular constellation. When an Horizon view is displayed, the symbol shown on the right appears at the top left corner of the map. The number displayed in the symbol gives the current azimuth of the view (i.e. the closest azimuth at the bottom of the screen).

How can I quickly switch from one database to an other?

The quickest way to switch to a different database (stars or deep sky objects) is to click in the current map with the mouse right button while holding the SHIFT key on the keyboard. The popup menu shown on the right is then displayed which allows a quick selection of the database to be displayed.

Beside the choice of the current star and deep sky object catalogues, this menu allows the user to toggle the display of the Solar System, user catalogues and dynamique catalogues.

Note that for large fields (i.e. when the zoom level is high), high density star catalogues cannot be displayed and the display of the SAO catalogue is forced (in which case the SAO label at the top right corner of the map is displayed in a red background).

Known Problems

Display in Windows 2007

Under Windows 7, some display problems with the dialog boxes have been reported. This will be tested and fixed soon.

Dialog Box display problem

Under Windows NT, it seems that a few Dialog Boxes (object search, field specification, ...) are displayed in an incorrect manner (text boxes and labels do not fit in the window). This problem is due to the size of the System font used in the current configuration.

Solution: it is advised to use a system font of 96 ppi.

Missing DLL msimg32

Under Windows 98, the execution of the program is halted with an error '48' when zooming at a high level on a planet in order to display its image.

Solution: Uncheck the option Planet Images in the SolSys tab of the Options dialog box.

Version History

• Support of the PPMXL catalogue. The PPMXL catalogue can be downloaded from the CDS web site (it weights more than 38 GB).
• It is now possible to import a specific asteroid from the Bowell catalogue Astorb.dat.
• The option loadAsteroid has been added on the command line for OccultWatcher. This allows the user to load the orbital elements of a specific asteroid directly from a local Astorb.dat file.
• User objects have been added to the observation planning tool.
• Search on asteroid and comet names is now possible even when the position of the objects has not been calculated. Search on the part of the names is also performed.
• A command has been added in the Options dialog box in order to automatically detect large star catalogue folders from a directory specified by the user. This facilitates the initial setup of C2A.
• Moon phase thumbnail images can be produced under the form of individual JPEG files.

• The C2A help system is now available in English.
• A new tool has been added to show visibility of the planets in a single screen.
• A bug has been fixed where SAO stars were not correctly displayed when the option "Colored SAO stars" was not activated in the options.
• The Equator line on the grid is now displayed in a different color which can be changed by the user.
• The choice of the Equinox of the Date or Equinox 2000 now also applies to comet and asteroid positions computed from their orbital elements and not only to planets. This is valid for the comet and asteroid display in the maps (in which case the Equinox option in the SolSys dialogue box is used) and for the ephemeris (in which case the Equinox option in the Ephemeris tool is used). A warning message is now displayed the first time the Equinox of the date is used.
• Comments in the text user catalogues are now taken into account and displayed during identifications.
• The keyboard shortcut $ is now available to refresh the polar clock.
• Grid label display has been improved for the different types of views.
• A bug has been fixed in the King method for polar alignement. Sub-window definition was ignored.
• A bug has been fixed in the information display for the USNO-B objects. Magnitude with a -100 value were displayed for objects without a magnitude defined.
• Coordinates in the Equinox of the Date are now displayed in the "Other information" area. If positions of the Solar System objects are requested in the Equinox of the Date, these are the J2000 coordinates which are displayed in the zone. In the control panel, the RA and DE labels now mention which equinox is used.
• By default, Solar System object positions are computed in the J2000 Equinox (this choice is highly recommended).
• Entries in the Exoplanet database can have an empty "number of data points" field, resulting in an error while parsing. They are now ignored.
• The Jupiter Great Red Spot position is now displayed in the visibility curve of the planet and during identification of Jupiter in the maps.
• A button has been added to reset the default values of the telescope system timer.

• An asterism catalogue has been added.
• A new Observation Scheduling tool is available.
• A bug has been fixed in the ArasBeAM and ETD star display.
• A new acquisition mode has been added to continuously acquire new images in the image processing window.
• A cross-hair has been added in the image processing window.
• Image threshold adjustments have been improved through pre-selected values.
• The Observation Planner has been improved in order to provide more criteria on double stars and WDS objects (sepration value, secondary magnitudes)It is now possible to add objects to the Observation Scheduler directly from the Observation Planner.
• Two options have been added to the telescope control system: it is now possible to specify if coordinates received from and sent to the telescope are expressed in the J2000 or local epoch.
• Two issues have been fixed in the King method: the log window could be out of the screen and a binning change was not taken into account if it was done just before launching the King acquisition.
• Two issues have been fixed in the Maxim DL interface: a time-out has been added when receiving the filter list; if a filter list was not returned, an exception was raised in C2A.

• The dynamic catalogue Exoplanet Transit Database has been added. This catalogue is directly loaded by C2A from the Internet.
• Search by name on objects from the catalogue ArasBeAM and Exoplanet Transit Database.
• The telescope mode PicAstro has been added.
• The NED distances have been added for a large number of galaxies in the RNGCIC catalogue. The WEBDA catalogue is also used for the open cluster distances. Finally, distances have been added for some diffuse nebulae.
• Common names have been added to some deep sky objects.
• Object IC 2118 now has an outline in the maps.
• Variable and multiple stars are now represented with conventional symbols. Furthermore, spectral types are now taken into account for the WDS catalogue.
• Star disk display has been improved.
• Update of the WDS catalogue (December 2010).
• Update of the GCVS catalogue (September 2010).
• Colored synthetic star display has been improved. A new star color (gray) has been added for the SAO, WDS and user stars which do not have a spectral type.
• The observation planner has been improved. It is now possible to search SAO stars (with a filter on spectral type), Hipparcos stars (with a filter on spectral type) and WDS stars (with a filter on spectral type and angular separation).
• Text output and printing has been improved for the observation planner.
• Several things have been improved in the SAO catalogue. In particular, more full spectral types are now provided.
• HD numbers for all the SAO stars which have one are now reported in the identification process.
• The mouse wheel direction has been changed (map and image).

• The URLs to access orbital elements from the MPC in the scope of the Asteroid and Comet tool have been changed. The URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/ is changed to http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/. This is because the orbital elements on the first URL are not maintained there anymore by the MPC.
• The configuration panel for the Skysensor 2000 PC native mode has been improved. It did not report correctly the current parameters after a change was made.

• Support of the dynamic catalogue ArasBeAM (Be star catalogue with automatic updates from the Internet).
• The menu item "USNO B1.0 Catalogue..." in the File menu is changed into "Distant Catalogues...".
• The keyboard shortcut to copy a map in the clipboard is now Ctrl+Ins instead of Ctrl+F6..

• IMPORTANT
  1) The update must be used only if a version 2.0.35 or higher of C2A is already installed on your computer. If it is not the case, download the full 2.0.37 version and install it.
  2) If you install the full version, uninstall first any previous version of C2A. Your settings will be preserved.
• C2A now nativerly supports the Washington Double Star Catalogue (WDS). This catalogue is included into the C2A standard installation package.
• An option has been added to set the Azimuth origin to the South (tab Location into the Options dialog box).
• The UCAC3 object naming pattern has been changed. Identifiers must now have the format "zzz-nnnnnn" where zzz is the UCAC3 zone number (between 1 and 360 from South pole to North pole) and nnnnnn is a 6 digit identifier which is specific to a given star in the zone.
• A button Apply has been added to the Options dialog box. It allows the user to apply changes which have been made into the Options dialog bow without having to close it.
• It is now possible to search stars through their Henry Draper designation. The item "HD" must be selected in the Search dialog box (if used) or the string "HD [xxx]" must be typed into the Quick Search zone (accessible with the shortcut F2 when the command pannel is displayed), [xxx] being the HD number of the star.

• IMPORTANT
  1) The update must be used only if version 2.0.35 of C2A is already installed on your computer. If it is not the case, download the full 2.0.36 version and install it.
  2) If you install the full version, uninstall first any previous version of C2A. Your settings will be preserved.
• This version of C2A is compatible with the realease 1.5 of the C2A Add-In for Occult Watcher, i.e. you must get version 2.0.36 of C2A when using the Occult Watcher C2A Add-In 1.5.
• It is now possible to use 2MASS magnitudes for the display of the UCAC3 catalogue.
• The UCAC3 flags are used to determine how stars from this catalogue are displayed in the maps:
  - If the flag object could be from possible streak is set, the star is displayed with a blue circle.
  - If the star is overexposed on one or several frames or if it is close to an overexposed star, it is displayed with a red circle.
  - If the star has a meanclass flag which is not set to star, it is displayed using the white color.
  In all other cases, UCAC3 stars are displayed with the default star color.
• The default color for the pre-pointing marks has been changed.
• A problem has been fixed in the english version of the Reset.exe utility. The registry key was not correctly deleted when requested. The version 2.5 of the Reset.exe utility has been released.
• It is now possible to only download a C2A update without having to get the full version with all the catalogues (see above).

• Caution!
  Make sure to uninstall any older version of C2A on your system prior to install this new version 2.0.35. Your parameters will be preserved.
• The UCAC3 native catalogue is now taken in charge by C2A. However, it is not provided with C2A and must be obtained separetly. It must be noted that the files table_zones and u3index.inf must be present in the same directory as the data files z001 to z360.
• The Hipparcos catalogue is now included by default in the C2A distribution (file Wap.hip in the installation directory). Therefore, the access path to the Hipparcos catalogue has been removed from the option dialog box.
• It is now possible to download an update of the new C2A releases without having to transfer all the large catalogues. Version 2.0.35 must be fully installed and the the following versions will only need update installs.
• In the Add/Remove tool of the Windows control pannel, C2A now appears without the version number. Updates will be done without having to uninstall the previous C2A version (this will allow users to install updates without having to download all the large files which are necessary for C2A).
• In the Startup menu, C2A now simply appears as C2A and no more as C2a for Windows.
• A problem has been fixed in the utility Reset.exe (the access path to the restauration point could not be found in some circumstances).The Reset.exe utility now has version number 2.4.

• The Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC 2003) is now natively integrated with C2A. Adding this catalogue has significantly increased the download size.
• The Astro-Physics GTO mounts with a GTOCP3 controler are now natively supported.
• A new Synthetic Star model with a Sigma of 1 has been added.
• There is now more label display options (name, magnitude, distance)
• Distances have been added to the Messier objects of the RNGCIC catalogue.
• Distance of Hipparcos stars are now displayed.
• Historic data has been added for all the objects of the RNGCIC catalogue (credit Wolfgang Steinicke).
• A problem has been fixed in the ASCOM alignement procedure. Two commands were sent for calibration.
• The maximum eyepiece field in Field Markers is now 120° instead of 90°.
• Binary stars in the user object catalogues are now depicted with a conventional symbol (circle with an horizontal bar). Tripe and multiple stars keep the same symbols.
• A few problems have been fixed that occurred when the user was trying to change the magnitude filter on deep-sky objects while an object filter was positionned.
• The view is now refreshed when Synthetic star display is requested from the options dialog box.
• It is now possible to import the full Bowell catalogue from the Automatic Import function of the Asteroid and Comet Tool. Take care however that the data transfer is quite long.
• A left click on the Moon icon in the dialog zone at the bottom of the screen while pressing the key SHIFT on the keyboard triggers the display of information regarding the Moon in the information zone at the left of the screen. This allows the user to know the rise, transit and set times without having to identify the Moon in the map. The same thing can be achieved for the Sun using the CTRL key.
• A new button has been added to the image processing window in order to adjust the zoom level to the size of the image so that a picture can be viewed globally without having to scroll.
• An option dialog box has been added to the image processing window so that the default behavior can be defined when loading an image (specify if the zoom level must be automatically adjusted when loading an image so that it can be viewed entirely).
• Marks on objects are now better centered (image, observation, Messier object, user object).
• A probleme has been fixed in the automatic position display of asteroids and comets when a filter is applied.
• Icon management in the main toolbar has been improved.
• Several icons have been added to the main toolbar.

User Manual

This document describes how to compile your own object catalogues. C2A offers the possibility to compile an object catalogue using a dedicated compiler provided in the Downloads page. This means that a binary file can be produced from an ASCII file whose syntax is described by the user. This binary file can then be loaded and displayed much faster within C2A.

This document describes how to import within C2A the asteroid orbital elements from the Bowell Asteroid Orbital Elements Database.

This document describes how to create your own catalogues of objects under the form of text files.

Tutorials

This tutorial shows how to use C2A in a basic way. This first part presents the interface and shows how tu use the Options dialog box.

This tutorial shows how to use C2A in a basic way. This second part shows how to set the current date, time and location. It also explains how to zoom in and zoom out and how to perform the most frequent interactions with the map.

This tutorial shows how to use C2A in a basic way. This third part shows how to select a star and deep sky object catalogue. It als explains what are the two types of view (Field and Horizon) used by C2A and how to quickly switch between these two types of view using keyboard shortcuts.

This tutorial shows how to us the Be Star ArasBeAM catalogue within the C2A astronomy software and how to make sure that the Be stars are visible in the maps.

Last Update : February 7, 2012
Author : Philippe Deverchère