[vsnet-chat 298] about GCVS, Guide5.0, file editors

[munari@astras.pd.astro.it (FAX +39 424 600023, TEL. 600033)]

A few comments on recent topic circulated on VSNET-CHAT:

1) An exploding number of front-leading amateurs are moving toward
   Linux operating system on their PCs. This means to have the Unix
   world running at full power in our PC, with all the available
   professional applications and packages fully supported
   (Iraf, LaTeX, SMONGO, just name them).
   And Linux is free !
   You have a vaste number of editors under Linux that can open and
   manage files of any length and perform column editing and search.
   They works very well on the GCVS and on much bigger files like
   those in the A1.0 or other astrometric catalogues.
   And they are free !
   If you still need DOS based applications, the WINE emulator under Linux
   allow you to run them. I personally found that some of them run
   2 times faster under Linux + emulator than directly under DOS on my
   Pentium 166

2) I guess no product of the Guide type can come without errors. The vast
   majority of them are in the original catalogues.
   I found Guide5.0 an excellent product. I have it raccomended to
   my MD and PhD students, and they use it to prepare finding charts
   during the lab courses when searching the plate archive of our Schmidt
   telescopes or trying to eye-aiming the 1.22 m telescope at the
   eyepiece toward a pre-selected object.

Regards
        U. Munari, Padova-Asiago Observatories

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