Hi Guillaume,
Historically all versions of Windows offer both NotePad and WordPad.
Since these two programs are two of the standard applications Window's offers, I do not recommend deleting them.
Instead I recommend you right click on the Desktop or in a folder and select what the corresponding prompt is in French that appears in English as New->Text Document.
Double left clicking on it will open Windows NotePad. You can copy and paste into it.
By way of background, the TLE's come in what is referred to in the computing industry as a "plain text file".
What this means is that there are no hidden formatting characters. What you see is what you get.
By contrast, consider a program such as Microsoft Word or WordPad. Those programs wrap the plain text that humans read into a format such as Rich Text Format (RTF).
RTF includes additional text so that the program can perform formatting. Consider the phrases "International Space Station" and "International Space Station".
They read exactly the same but note the later I bolded. There is hidden text that performs that task. Likewise in most Western languages a single space is used to separate words. If you type multiple spaces into some programs such as Word and WordPad they will condense it down to a single space. NotePAd, by contrast, will preserve white spaces.
The TLE format was originated by NORAD - The North American Air Defence Command - back in the early days of the Cold War.
NORAD had established a set of radar antenna along the Arctic Circle in what was called the DEW Line - The Distance Early Warning Line.
The world's largest computer at the time was interfaced to these radar to look for Soviet ICBM's coming over the North Pole. The computer had to also differentiate between a Soviet nuclear attack and the thousands of commercial aircraft flying and known earth orbiting satellites. So NORAD tasked itself to keep track of all man-made satellites and to this day has a global tracking network including in places such as Hawaii. NASA adopted the same format.
Back in those days, computers used punch cards, typically 80 columns. The TLE format no doubt was designed to fit within the 80 columns of a standard punch card.
For many years - until the early 1990's - Celestrak use to receive its elements by postal mail.
With this historical background in mind, you can appreciate it was easier in those days for computer programs to process the data if it came in fixed columns. This means at times multiple spaces between fields when no data is present.
As the Argo Navis User's Manual details, only ever open the orbital elements with a program that will preserve them as "plain text files". Microsoft NotePad and MicroSoft WordPad can both open them but there is a difference. Notepad will preserve the "plain text" format whereas programs such as WordPad will apply hidden formatting, may reduce multiple spaces to a single space and thereby corrupt the fixed column format that programs use to interpret the fields.
Comet and asteroid orbital elements are not identical to satellite TLE's but the same rule applies.
The Argo Navis Users Manual also provides tips on satellite tracking using the ServoCAT starting on page 200 in the English edition.
These same tips also apply if you don't have a ServoCAT and will track by hand.
Wildcard Innovations and StellarCAT worked very closely for nearly a year on the development and testing of the AutoTrack feature.
How well this control system works is exemplified by real-time satellite tracking. It's exciting to watch the satellite appear stationary in the eyepiece with stars zooming by in the background.
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Best Regards
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Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place
Mount Kuring-Gai NSW 2080
Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
sales@...
https://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au
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