Customizing program Targets

On the first time you run Targets, you should take some time to customize the program to suit your particular needs. This may be done by editing the text file TAO\targets\targets.cfg, which is the default configuration file for program Targets. The configuration file allows you to specify data about your observing station and filtering criteria to prevent targets in which you are not interested from appearing in the list of potential targets. The contents of this file are shown below:

STATION DATA:
  Latitude (deg):                                 -23.00056
  Longitude (deg, positive if east of Greenwich): -46.96506
  Range of observable declinations:
    Northern limit (deg):                         +34
    Southern limit (deg):                         -90
OBJECT FILTERS:
  List fixed targets? (yes/no)                    yes
  List moving targets? (yes/no)                   yes
    List asteroids? (yes/no)                      yes
      Exclude numbered asteroids? (yes/no)        yes
      Exclude main belt asteroids? (yes/no)       no
      Limiting magnitude for asteroids:           19.5
    List NEOCP objects? (yes/no)                  yes
      NEOCP ephemeris file:                       NEOCPeph.htm
    List comets? (yes/no)                         yes
  Exclude these priority codes:                   B, N, l

The various parameters which may be specified in this configuration file are explained below:

• Latitude. Specify the latitude of the observing station (in degrees; north latitudes are positive).

• Longitude. Specify the longitude of the observing station (in degrees; longitudes east of Greenwich are positive).

• Range of observable declinations. Specify the northern and southern limits of the range of declinations (in degrees) which you could possibly observe from your station. Note that horizon obstruction, light pollution, and other factors may reduce your range of observable declinations with respect to the maximal range determined by your latitude.

• List fixed targets? Answer yes if you wish that targets belonging to TAO's fixed object database appear in the list of potential targets.

• List moving targets? Answer yes if you wish that targets belonging to TAO's moving object database appear in the list of potential targets.

• List asteroids? Answer yes if you wish that minor planets appear in the list of potential targets.

• Exclude numbered asteroids? Answer yes if you wish to exclude numbered asteroids from the list of potential targets.

• Exclude main belt asteroids? Answer yes if you wish to exclude typical main belt asteroids from the list of potential targets. "Main belt asteroids" are here operationally defined as objects whose orbit has semi-major axis (a), eccentricity (e), and inclination (i) satisfying the inequalities 2.1 AU < a < 3.3 AU, e < 0.2, and i < 15 deg.

• Limiting magnitude for asteroids. Minor planets whose predicted magnitude is fainter than this limit will not appear on the list of potential targets. Due to the uncertainties in minor planet predicted magnitudes, you should set this limit to perhaps one magnitude fainter than your actual limiting magnitude.

• List NEOCP objects? Answer yes if you wish that objects listed on the NEO Confirmation Page (NEOCP) appear on the list of potential targets.

• NEOCP ephemeris file. This is the name of the file containing current NEOCP ephemerides. The most convenient (and strongly recommended) way to obtain this file is by running script NEOCPMon; in this case, the name of the NEOCP ephemerides file will be NEOCPeph.htm.

• List comets? Answer yes if you wish that comets appear on the in the list of potential targets.

• Exclude these priority codes. Some objects in the list of potential targets will have a priority code, a single-character code which appears in front of the target name in the list of potential targets. For minor planets, the priority code is normally determined by program Targets based on the desirability ratings for further observations which are given in the Minor Planet and Comet Ephemeris Service output (click here for more details about the standard priority codes for minor planets). For fixed targets imported from external catalog files, the priority codes may be assigned by the user when importing the targets, and may serve to identify targets imported from different catalogs, or which are of interest to different users. One may also manually assign priority codes by editing the text files TAO\targets\Fixed.txt (which lists all fixed targets in the database) and TAO\targets\Moving.txt (which lists all moving targets in the database); the priority code for a given target is specified in the first column of the corresponding record of these files. It is possible to exclude targets having certain priority codes from the list of potential targets. This is done by specifying a list of priority codes which should be excluded. The priority codes to exclude should be separated by commas.

Notes:

1. Different telescope users may wish to see a list of potential targets containing only those targets in which they are interested. This is may be achieved by using file TAO\targets\targets.cfg as a template for creating other non-default configuration files for program Targets. For example, a user CGD whose sole interest is comets might use a configuration file TAO\targets\CGD.cfg with the following contents:

   STATION DATA: Latitude (deg): -23.00056 Longitude (deg, positive if east of Greenwich): -46.96506 Range of observable declinations: Northern limit (deg): +34 Southern limit (deg): -90 OBJECT FILTERS: List fixed targets? (yes/no) no List moving targets? (yes/no) yes List asteroids? (yes/no) no Exclude numbered asteroids? (yes/no) no Exclude main belt asteroids? (yes/no) no Limiting magnitude for asteroids: 19.5 List NEOCP objects? (yes/no) no NEOCP ephemeris file: NEOCPeph.htm List comets? (yes/no) yes Exclude these priority codes:

   Program Targets could be run multiple times with different configuration files, each time producing a list of potential targets tailored to the interests of a particular user.

2. The telescope administrator (the person who actually schedules the observations for one or more telescope users) should always run Targets with an "all-inclusive" configuration file to produce a list of potential targets which includes all targets of potential interest to all telescope users. This list of potential targets would be one of the input files of the TAO scheduler.

3. If you make use of different instruments, which may be located at different geographical locations, each instrument might have a separate Targets configuration file.