Windows Task-Scheduled Updates for Minor Planet Center files

[Dick Berg]

Here are three zip files that will enable you to set up automatic (daily if you like) updates in ACP for the Minor Planet Center's minor planet and comet databases. I've been running this automatically for 10 months on daily basis without a hitch. It's unattended updating, set up at a frequency and time of your choosing, requiring no user intervention, and silently disappearing when the processes finish.

Unzip the files and follow along through the instructions. A warning, though - if you have trouble with permissions for writing into the MPCCOMET and MPCORB folders, this automatic process will also fail. There is no special permission-skipping capability here. (This has been a long-standing issue for a few users, particularly for Windows 7, and Bob is working on how to resolve this issue.)

Let me know how it goes.

EDIT: Replaced the original Put_in_MPCCOMET_Folder.zip with a new one that has an updated MakeCometDB_noEcho.wsf file. This new file enables ACP to find comets with "A/" Names

[Bob Denny]

Thank you very much for posting this Dick. Moved here for better visibility.

[Dick Berg]

I discovered that the automatic task-scheduled updates for MPCORB.MDB and MPCCOMET.MDB were no longer working for me. The tasks would start, the command window would open, but then it would close in an instant. This is a new problem related to the way the .dat files were no longer being downloaded from the Minor Planet Center. Bob might explain the technicalities better -- I won't even try. Shown here is the one-line change I made in both the UpdateCometFile.js and UpdateMPFile.js scripts.

change.png

If you installed the task-scheduler updaters, replacing the corresponding .js files in the MPCORB folder and the MPCCOMET folder with these new versions will restore the capability.