PowerShell Script to Update MPC Databases - Run on W1ndows Task Scheduler

[Tim Long]

Here are the PowerShell scripts for updating the databases...

Make-MpcOrbDatabase.ps1:

Push-Location 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ASCOM\MPCORB'
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPCORB/MPCORB.DAT -OutFile MPCORB.DAT
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /C CScript MakeDB.wsf
Pop-Location

...and Make-MpcCometDatabase.ps1...

Push-Location 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ASCOM\MPCCOMET'
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/Soft00Cmt.txt -OutFile CometEls.txt
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /C CScript MakeCometDB.wsf
Pop-Location

...and they have to be scheduled in Windows Task Scheduler like this... The text in the "arguments" field is the path to the powershell script, like this:

-file C:\Users\Tim\OneDrive\PoshScripts\Make-MpcOrbDatabase.ps1

ScheduleMPC.png

I schedule them to run every 2 days on alternating days, about mid-morning.

[Tim Long]

Here's a zip file containing the two scripts, plus tasks exported from my task scheduler. I'm not sure how well these will import on a different system, and you'll certainly need to check the settings, but they are just XML files so at the very least you'll be able to open them in an editor and see what settings I've used.

[Bob Denny]

Thank you Tim!!