Browse Occultation Screen

As previously noted under the description of Search for Occultations Screen, the user can choose to defer the found occultations into a Browse Set which can be viewed later using the Browse Occultation Screen. 26 Browse Sets, one for each letter of the alphabet, are available for the accumulation of occultations for later viewing.

For each Browse Set, the occultations contained within can be arranged or sorted by various parameters, specifically by Date, Asteroid Name, Closest Angular Separation from star, Star ID, Magnitude Drop, and Duration of Shadow (see upper left of screen). Within a sort criterion, direct access to a specific occultation is facilitated by entering a date, 1st letter of an asteroid name, etc. In addition, occultations can be accessed sequentially within a sort order using controls [Top], [Next], [Previous], [Bottom]. Full information is displayed in the upper right for any selected occultation. Once selected the user can invoke the View Occultation Screen previously described by the control [Examine Event]. For the example displayed here, the 74 Galatea event previously was stored into Browse Set G and is now available for deferred study.
Three batch functions are included which provide powerful, shortcut processes to operate on all occultations within a Browse Set as a group.

Batch Init Orbits

Refines asteroid orbital elements to the epoch of occultation if necessary.

Batch Mark Events

Searches for occultations with the shadow crossing near to a given target site selected using the Location Screen. If a match is found, the occultation is marked within the set for later isolation and viewing.

Batch Path Output

For every occultation in the Browse Set, the earth path location and other pertinent information is written to a text file for later examination and/or printing. In addition, an EarthPlot can be created which shows the paths of all the occultations on a world scale map. An example is included.

Each occultation in a Browse Set is further distinguished by its status within the set. Active indicates the default status. Marked indicates that the occultation was marked by the Batch Mark Event function. And, Deleted indicates that the occultation was deleted from Active so that it would not show up in the Active list. The respective occultation subsets by these status types can be viewed by selecting the Operate on ... control in the lower left to select among Active, Marked, and Deleted. Occultations can be moved between Active and Deleted status by Button Controls in the extreme lower left. Other Pull Down menus offer additional functions that operate on sets, e.g. clear a set, move occultations from one set to another, etc. These Set management functions greatly facilitate the selection and viewing of events of specific interest to the user.