From time to time you may wish to add extra objects to the StarTrak database, since the database contains just the planets, the Messier objects and a few others.

From time to time you may wish to edit the details of an object already in the database - for example, estimates of the distance to the Andromeda galaxy seem to change year by year.

The operations of adding an object and editing an existing object are very similar in StarTrak. Press the Menu key at the bottom-left of the keyboard. This will display menus as shown in figure 4.1:

If you press the right-arrow key (bottom-right of keyboard), this selects the Object menu (figure 4.2):

You will notice that Add/Edit is highlighted, so you can now press the Enter key (right-hand side of keyboard) to select this menu option:

StarTrak will prompt you for the name of an object to Add or Edit, and you will notice that it has already supplied the name of the current object (i.e. the object you were previously looking at). However, if you type another object name, this will overwrite it. (Please note that StarTrak does not allow you to edit planet information.)

The choice of whether to Add or to Edit is made by StarTrak, and depends on whether that object is already in its database.

For example, if you were to type M1 (and press Enter), StarTrak would find M1 (the Crab Nebula) and allow you to edit its details. Editing will be described in more detail shortly - if you are doing this example now with the Psion and StarTrak, please press Esc to abandon the operation.

On the other hand, if you were to type sigma cas (a faint star in Cassiopeia)...

... and press Enter, then because this is not in the StarTrak database, StarTrak would let you add it (StarTrak also capitalises the first letter of each part of the name for you):

By combining much of the operations of adding and editing, StarTrak is, in effect, saying "I'll check if I have this object in my database - if I have it, you can edit it; if I don't have it you can add it." This means that you avoid the need to check for an object in the database before you add it.

You can also choose an object for editing via a wildcarded name (see figure 4.6):

This example will find the Sombrero Galaxy (M104, NGC4594), and allow you edit its details (please don't - this is just an example!). If your wildcarded name doesn't match anything in the database, StarTrak will tell you so.

If you have been trying these operations on the Psion, press Esc now to return to the normal screen layout (as in figure 1.1).

This example is one for you to try on the computer. It shows you how to edit the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy.

1. Press the Menu key (bottom-left of keyboard). This puts up some menus: press the right-arrow key (bottom-right of keyboard) to get to the Object menu, and with Add/Edit highlighted, press Enter to select this option. 



Figure 4.7

2. Now type in something which identifies the Andromeda galaxy (e.g. M31, NGC224, andr*, etc):



Figure 4.8

3. Press Enter and StarTrak will retrieve data on this object and allow you to edit it. Press the down-arrow key (bottom-right of keyboard) three times and notice how StarTrak's flashing cursor moves down three lines to the Magnitude data-field:



Figure 4.9

4. Now press the right-arrow key once to arrive at the Distance field.

 



Figure 4.10

 

5. At the top-right of the keyboard is the Delete key. Keep pressing this until all the Distance digits have been deleted, then type in 3000000 (three, followed by six zeros).
6. Press the Enter key. StarTrak will ask if you want to commit this new (edited) data: 

 



Figure 4.11

 

7. Rather than accept this edit, press N (for 'no') and then Esc so that the database is left in its original state.

As you might imagine, you could edit any of the data fields - name, magnitude, distance, constellation, object type, right-ascension (RA) and declination (Dec). These will be described in the next exercise.

This is the first of two exercises in which we look at how to add objects to the database. You can try these exercises with the Psion and StarTrak.

Object NGC2403 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis, and has the following data:

Magnitude: 8 Distance 12000000 light-years

Constellation: Camelopardalis

Type: Spiral Galaxy

RA: 7 h 37.0' Dec: 66° 0'

1. Press the Menu key, then the right-arrow key to put up the Object menu (as in figure 4.7). With Add/Edit highlighted, press Enter to select this option. 
2. When StarTrak asks for the name of the object, type ngc2403 (or NGC2403) - without any space between 'NGC' and '2403' . This will overwrite the name of the current object, which StarTrak has suggested as a default. Press Enter. This gives the following screen:

 



Figure 4.12

 

3. Notice that the NGC number is automatically placed in the correct field. Since this object does not have a Messier number or any alternative names, we can skip past the fields for Messier No, and Alt.Name3 (alternative name 3), and Alt.Name4 (alternative name 4) by pressing the down-arrow key 3 times which brings us to the Distance field.
4. Fill in the Distance field with 12000000, then press the left-arrow key to get to the Magnitude field. Fill this with 8.
5. Press the down-arrow key to get to the Constellation field. Because StarTrak knows the names of all 88 constellations, you'll find you don't need to type much. As you type the first 'C' (or 'c'), StarTrak suggests 'Caelum', but if you continue typing with 'a' and 'm' it will suggest 'Camelopardalis', and you need type no more in this field:

 



Figure 4.13

 

6. Press the down-arrow key to get to the Type field. Since this is a spiral galaxy, press the 's' key. At this point, StarTrak will suggest 'Spiral Galaxy' and you need type no more in this field. (The different types of objects acceptable to StarTrak are listed in Appendix 1.)
7. Now press the down-arrow key to get to the last line of the screen where there are four fields to be filled (RA hours, RA minutes, Declination degrees and Declination minutes). Use the left-arrow or right-arrow keys to move between these fields, and when you arrive at a field press Delete (top right of keyboard) to delete the zero already in the field, and then type in the correct values:



Figure 4.14

 

8. If you made any mistakes with the earlier data fields, use the arrow keys to move back to them to correct them. When you are happy that the data fields are correct, press Enter. This will ask you whether to commit the data (N or Y), but please select N and then press Esc. This will allow another astronomer to repeat this exercise:

This object has the following data:

Magnitude: 2.0 Distance 850 light-years

Constellation: Canis Major

Type: Single Star

RA: 6 h 23.0' Dec: -18° 0'

1. Press the Menu key, then the right-arrow key to put up the Object menu (as in figure 4.7). With Add/Edit highlighted, press Enter to select this option.
2. Type Beta Canis Majoris (in upper-case or lower-case, it doesn't matter) and press Enter. This gives the following screen:

 



Figure 4.16

 

3. Notice that the 'Greek' (or Bayer) form of the name is automatically present in the correct field (Alt.Name4, which is 'reserved' for any name beginning with any of the Greek letters from alpha to omega). If we had instead supplied the name 'Mirzam', StarTrak would have placed this in the Alt.Name3 field, which is reserved for 'common names' (such as Mirzam, Sirius, Andromeda Spiral, Pleiades, etc). Since this object does not have a Messier number or NGC code, we can ignore the fields for Messier No and NGC code. Use the arrow keys to move to the other fields.
4. Fill the Alt.Name3 field with Mirzam, the Magnitude field with 2, and the Distance field with 850.
5. Press the down-arrow key to get to the Constellation field. Because StarTrak knows the names of all 88 constellations, you'll find you don't need to type much. As you type the first 'C' (or 'c'), StarTrak suggests 'Caelum', but if you continue typing, when you have reached 'cani' it will suggest 'Canis Major', and you need type no more in this field.

 



Figure 4.17

6. Press the down-arrow key to get to the Type field. Since this is a single star, press the 's' key. At this point, StarTrak will suggest 'Spiral Galaxy' but if you continue typing with 'i' StarTrak will suggest 'Single Star' and you need type no more in this field. (The different types of objects acceptable to StarTrak are listed in Appendix 1.)¹

 

7. Now press the down-arrow key to get to the last line of the screen where there are four fields to be filled (RA hours, RA minutes, Declination degrees and Declination minutes). Use the left-arrow or right-arrow keys to move between these fields, and when you arrive at a field press Delete (top right of keyboard) to delete the zero already in the field, and then type in the correct values. Note that the Declination is negative, so you'll need to use the minus (-) key (just to the left of the Enter key):

 



Figure 4.18

 

8. If you made any mistakes with the earlier data fields, use the arrow keys to move back to them to correct them. When you are happy that the data fields are correct, press Enter. This will ask you whether to commit the data (N or Y), but please select N and then press Esc. This will allow another astronomer to repeat this exercise.

• When adding objects to the database, avoid the word 'the'. So it's Andromeda Spiral (not 'The Andromeda Spiral'), Pleiades (not 'The Pleiades') etc. The reason for this convention is that this will save needless typing when you recall an object later, and also will not waste screen space with needless characters.
• Remember that the data you put into the Alt.Name3 field and/or the Alt.Name4 field (as well as the Messier and NGC fields) should be a unique identifier.
• If you add objects to the database, there is space for you to write the details in the table in Appendix 2 at the back of this manual.