sample.stars

This is an example StarPlot data file.  It is copyright (C) 2000 Kevin B.
McCarty under the terms of the GPL (see the COPYING file).  This part (before
the first record) is the header and may contain any text EXCEPT for dollar
signs.

The beginning of each record is indicated by a dollar sign.  Fields
within the record are separated by semicolons, and subfields, by commas.
Note that there should NOT be a dollar sign just before EOF unless you
want to have an empty record (unlikely).

Records have the following format:

(dol. sign) StarName1, StarName2,...; RA(h,m,s); Dec(d,m,s); Distance(LY);
Diameter(LY); SpectralClass; Magnitude; PrimaryDistance(LY);
ClusterMembership; Comments; (any further fields will be ignored by StarPlot)

StarPlot will assume blank fields to represent a null string or zero value
without complaint (but the semicolons separating fields may not be omitted,
nor may two semicolons be adjacent [blame strtok() for inconsistency]).
Extraneous white space (spaces, tabs, newlines) will be stripped by the
program as long as it immediately follows a field or record dividing mark,
so feel free to format for readability, as shown in the example records below.
Further comments on some of the fields follow.

* Diameter may be set at zero or left blank and StarPlot will use the
  magnitude and spectral class to calculate an estimated diameter.  In fact,
  you will probably not want to bother filling in this field except for
  large non-stellar objects.  Note that Diameter, like all distances, is
  assumed to be in light-years.
* For stars, SpectralClass must begin with one of the (case-insensitive)
  letters W O B A F G K M C R N S D.  StarPlot treats the C R N and S labels
  as equivalent to M.  Non-stellar objects must use an asterisk `*' for the
  first non-blank character of this field.  If the first non-blank character
  of this field is other than one of these (or if the field is blank),
  StarPlot will display this object in bright green.
* It is assumed that magnitude refers to the absolute visual magnitude,
  although using other absolute magnitudes (e.g. the bolometric magnitude)
  will not make a difference except in StarPlot's calculation of stellar
  diameters and in which stars are displayed for given magnitude limits.
* PrimaryDistance refers to the distance, in LY, of a star in a multiple
  system from the system's primary.  Leaving this field blank or at zero
  implies that a star is the primary or is single.  If the star is a secondary
  but its distance from the primary is unknown, you can still flag it as a
  companion star by using a negative number here.  This field is used by the
  StarPlot option to hide companion stars [not yet implemented].
* ClusterMembership is a string which is used by the StarPlot option to
  hide companion stars [not yet implemented].  All stars in the same system
  should have the same string here.  This field can be left blank for singleton
  stars.
* Comments is the place to put any additional remarks about the star.

Note: You should go by the documentation in this file, not try to write
workarounds based on the StarPlot code itself.  Although future versions
of StarPlot will try to be backwards-compatible, I do not guarantee that
the StarPlot data file code internals will not change.

Example records:
---------------
                            Distance (LY) from primary star in multiple system
                                                         |
                            Distance (LY)    Spec.  Abs  |    Cluster
  Names       R.A.  Declination |  Diameter  class  mag  |    membership
    | \     h  m  s    d  m  s  |     |       |      |   |    | 
$ Sun, Sol; 0, 0, 0;   0, 0, 0; 0; 1.37e-07; G2 V; 4.85; 0; UMa Moving Group;
  Nine planets, as follows: [planet info];
  |
  Comments about the star; this field may be of any length.  (However, StarPlot
  ignores any characters after the first 2000 in a record.  This constant can
  be changed by editing the value of RECORD_MAX_LENGTH in classes/stararray.h
  before compiling, but you really shouldn't need more.)

  (StarPlot also ignores text, such as this, after the tenth field in a 
  record--it's a good place to put comments about data sources, etc.)

$ Proxima Cen, Alpha Cen C, Rigil Kentaurus C; 14,32,00; -62,49,00; 4.24; 0;
  M5e V; 15.49; 0.252; Alpha Cen triple system;
  Nearest star, known flare star [etc]

$ Alpha Cen B, Alpha(2) Cen, Rigil Kentaurus B; 14,39,35; -60,50,13; 4.34; 0;
  K0 V; 5.71; 0.00037; Alpha Cen triple system;
  Secondary of nearest triplet

$ Alpha Cen, Alpha(1) Cen, Alpha Cen A, Rigil Kentaurus, Rigil Kentaurus A;
  14,39; -60, 48; 4.34; 0; G2 V; 4.4; 0; Alpha Cen triple system;
  Primary of nearest triplet

$ Barnard's Star; 17,58; +04,41; 6.0; 0; M3.8 V; 13.2; 0; ; Suspected planets

$ Wolf 359; 10,56; +07,01; 7.8; 0; M5.8 Vc; 16.7; 0; ; Well-known Star Trek war

$ Lalande 21185, BD+36 2147; 11,03; +35,58; 8.3; 0; M2.1 Vc; 10.5; 0

$ Sirius, Sirius A, Alpha CMa, Alpha(1) CMa, Alpha CMa A;
  06,45; -16,43; 8.6; 0; A1 Vm; 1.4; 0; Sirius double system;

  (et cetera - you should get the idea.)

