ASTLINKS

Name

astlinks

Purpose

Scan for linkages among a collection of asteroid astrometric measurements

Description

This program looks for linkages between moving object astrometric
measurements. The main set of measurements that are scanned are all
of the .ast files in the current directory. These measurements are
checked against all other objects in the same directory and against
all objects in another directory. The linkages are established by pure
linear motion coincidence.
There are two files written as the program runs, links.log and astlink.xrft.
The file, links.log, is a copy of the copious information about each
link that is written to the screen. Here you get to see the data that
lead up to the match. The file, astlink.xrft, is a list of matches
only. It's in the same format as lplast.xrft which is used by ASTCOL to
record the proper name in the output astrometry file. If you have provided
"otherdir" and there is an lplast.xrft file in that directory, that file
is read and used to further resolve names.

Calling Sequence

astlinks,otherdir

Inputs

Optional Input Parameters

otherdir - If specified, the local .ast files are checked against this
directory too.

Keyword Input Parameters

NOLOCAL - Flag, if set will suppress checking for linkages within the
astrometry from the current directory.
ONEFILE - Optional input of a single local .ast file to check against
another directory. Specifying this option implies /NOLOCAL.

Outputs

Keyword Output Parameters

Common Blocks

Side Effects

Restrictions

Procedure

Modification History

98/01/13, Written by Marc W. Buie, Lowell Observatory
2001/08/15, MWB, changed to use new rdlplast procedure.
2002/09/03, MWB, changed Str_sep call to strsplit
2004/9/21, MWB, removed obsolete call to Findfile