[APBeta] Comet data

[RPEHLM]

Wait a cotton-pickin minute!!!

Just checked a bit further down the Comet.dat file.  There is a format 
change after the 89'th line.  Values CometObject(n) where n<=89 produce 
the effect previously described.  n>=90 produce what I would expect to 
see.  For exampe, n=90 produces:

ID: [C/1995 01   ]
Name: [Hale-Bopp         ]

So why the change in formatting?

Regards
Robin

RPEHLM wrote:
> Hi gang,
>
> I'm using the following script fragment to check out Comet.dat data:
>
> dim apco as APCometObject
> apco = CometObject(1)
> if apco = nil then
>  debug "Comet object not found!"
> else
>  debug "Comet object found"
>  debug "ID: [" + apco.ID + "]"
>  debug "Name: " + apco.Name + "]"
> end
>
> This fragment produces:
>
> Comet object found
> ID: [2P/Encke    ]
> Name: [                   ]
>
> Looking at the contents of Comet.dat it looks like ID should be 
> "0002P" and Name should be "2P/Encke" (maybe with some trailing 
> padding).  I tried the fragment with several other values for 
> CometObject(n), all produced the same result e.g. ID=something, 
> Name=blank.
>
> Given that I know zip about cometary data is my assumption about the 
> contents of the ID and Name fields correct?  Should I raise a bug 
> report or is my assumption wrong?
>
> Regards
> Robin
> P.S. The Comet.dat file was downloaded from 
> <http://www.astro.cz/mpcorb> and was dated 15-Oct-2008 (seems a bit 
> old to me, but there you go)
>
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