[Kstars-devel] help with batch processing section of calculator and airmass calculation

[Akarsh Simha]

Hi Christian,

>    Hi,
> 
>    I have two questions. Where can I get an example file and some
>    documentation about the batch processing in the calculator section. An
>    example for the input and the output file would be nice.

The batch processing had a lot of bugs, I don't know if anybody uses
it and whether there's any documentation regarding that. So I'm afraid
I don't know the answer to this, but I guess other developers here
might.

>    The second questions is, what formular did you use to determin the
>    airmass? Was it Pickering (2002) X = 1/sin(h+244/(165+47h^1.1)) and where
>    in the source code do I find it?

I found this in the file kstars/dialogs/detaildialog.cpp (line 326):

    //Airmass is approximated as the secant of the zenith distance,
    //equivalent to 1./sin(Alt).  Beware of Inf at Alt=0!

and it's followed by the same calculation described in the comment.

That's bad! If you have the source code checked out and are capable of
compiling it, you're welcome to replace it with the better formula you
have and submit a patch.

Thanks for pointing this out.

Regards
Akarsh