Roxanne (and all):
Yeah, semi-retired - in theory. Spent all weekend pretending I'm an arborist and clearing a building lot... Gotta pay for that ASTRID.....
Ok, good that it seems you have Occult accepting file downloads (and probably a good idea that you did a fresh install - tho that's sometimes a drag to do).
Yes, when you are updating some files under Maintenance-> General Downloads, after that file is downloaded it will say something like, "You will now be taken to update your asteroid database". You will then see the "Convert" stage....
What I do at that point is to exit out of the "Convert" that is showing.
Reason being... I want to load the asteroid files in the specific order of Astorb, then AstDyS-2, and lastly MPCOrb.
What you will do next is just what the program wants, but you'll do it in the order that works best.....
So now go to download #23 Astorb....
When you select Astorb, it should download. Upon completion of the download, you are taken to the (same) Convert window. What "Convert" does is reads the Astorb file and converts it into a format that Occult can use.
At "Convert" several things show.... (as in your image)....
* Include MPs larger that "X" km. Here I use 3km. But as you know the smaller you go, the numbers increase 'exponentially'. You could try 3, but maybe to start you might try 5 or 6 (you can change this later). [You can revise the diameter setting the next time you update the 3 database files].
* Numbered MPs only (I leave this unchecked).
* Limit to 3+ oppositions (I like this checked). If unchecked the additional asteroids that will be included will have very large uncertainties (ie., huge 1-sigma bounds). Good Luck getting an occultation on those!
*"Mandatory MPs.." This means, no matter what, I want the numbered MP(s) to be included in my database - irregardless of any above specified setting. For example you might want to include some of the Near Earth Asteroids that IOTA likes to go after --- like Phaethon, which are under 3km. You don't have to enter any additional numbers here, but if you don't add some small, important ones, they will NEVER show up in your Occult search (as they simply won't be in your database).
--- After you configure what you want, then you press the "Convert" button. Convert builds a subset of Astorb in a file format that Occult can use.
It should then show you a folder where Astorb is stored. Accept this by clicking "Open". ("Open" overwrites any older file).
You will see a "Convert" progress bar and it should eventually say "Astorb conversion complete".
Next, you do the exact same steps for AstDyS-2 (Convert should remember your selection settings), it will show you the folder where AstDyS-2 is stored, you press "Open", and it should say ASTDyS-2 conversion complete.
Lastly do the same thing for MPCOrb.
The reason you load these 3 files is that none of the asteroid database files contains all the info that Occult needs to make a prediction. For example, MPCOrb does not contain any info on the uncertainty of the orbit - so the 1-sigma uncertainty lines could never be generated from MPCOrb. Nor does it contain info on the asteroid's assumed diameter. So in short, Occult has to draw from all 3 databases to get all the info it needs to properly make a prediction.
Now, why you do MPCOrb last.........
I may be wrong on this - as it's been years since I tried otherwise - but I believe that the last database file you load is the one that Occult uses for the actual orbital elements (All 3 files? contain orbital elements, tho they may be slightly different!). For example, if you load MPCOrb last, your initial "Search" will be based on the orbital elements in MPC's MPCOrb.
You can see the orbital element database that Occult uses - as it's just to the right of the "Search" button when you start a search.
See the attached image for how I configure my Search Page.
I hope the above helps.
The weather is due to turn very poor for me soon (freezing rain)... so chainsaw work will be put off. Maybe we can do a Zoom session (quite?) soon.....
[November is usually VERY, VERY cloudy for me... Doubt I'll have any stars winking at me for a while].
Let me know if this helps and if anyone else has questions / problems / thoughts / corrections / intense criticisms..., etc.....
Later??? -G
George Viscome
