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                        Description of format atlas 4
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                       Jukka Piironen 2001 June 19



                            GENERAL STRUCTURE


The data are stored in ASCII files, with a maximum of 80 characters per line.
Each file can contain an arbitrary number of lightcurves.  The files have the
following general structure (the following contains two lightcurves):


format atlas4.
================
   header
   data
================
   header
   data
================
END OF FILE



THE HEADER


Each line of the header consists of two parts:  The first 16 characters
identifies the type of line.  The structure of the subsequent characters
varies from line to line and is given in the table below.  The format is
given in standard Fortran.  Note that the logical (boolean) variables
answering questions are stored as "T" (true) or "F" (false) in the files.



Type of line     Format    Explanation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OBJECT........: Number and name of asteroid
OBSERVING TIME: Approximate observing time
ZERO TIME.....: Beginning of observations (this must be accurate)
UNIT OF TIME..: here you give the unit of time (1.0 hours or 1.0 days)
OBSERVING SITE: Observatory name and location
TELESCOPE.....: Name and size of telescope
DETECTOR......: Photographic, photoelectric, CCD, etc.
COLUMNS.......: Here you describe columns (# stands for time . for error)
PHOT. SYSTEM..: Description of the photometric system
FILTERS.......: Filter codes used for lightcurve
RELATIVE PHOT.: Photometry not calibrated (T/F)
LT CORRECTED..: This informs if time is light-time corrected or not (T/F)
INFORMATION...: General comment
DATA:           Marks the beginning of the data
END OF FILE     Marks the end of data file
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



AN EXAMPLE OF A DATA FILE


The data part for a lightcurve can consist of an arbitrary number of lines.
An exclamation mark "!" in the first column indicates a comment or data
which have been rejected.  These lines should be ignored in automatic
analysis.  The columns can be of any format and separated by at least one
blank space. Just numbers in columns! No aspect data is required
because we calculate that from the observing time which you should include
in the header information of your data file.


NOTE: No composite lightcurves! Only original reduced data. If you have observed
also standard stars, please, give directly your reduced V,R,... magnitudes
and inform the columns in COLUMNS row.


It will help us if you give the observing and zero times in Julian days.


A typical data file looks following (use this example in editing your
data file):




format atlas 4.
********************************************************************************
begin general
OBJECT........: 1998 SF36
OBSERVING SITE: E 24.72   41.72  My Observatory
TELESCOPE.....: 120/1200 Cassegrain
DETECTOR......: CCD Tektronix Super-chip
INFORMATION...: You may give here the name(s) of the observer(s)
end
********************************************************************************
include general
INFORMATION...: Whatever you want to inform
COLUMNS.......: #V.
PHOT. SYSTEM..: UBV
RELATIVE PHOT.: T
REDUCED MAG...: F
UNIT OF TIME..: 1.0 hours
LT CORRECTED..: T
OBSERVING TIME: 2451173.6      (1998 Dec 26)
ZERO TIME.....: 2451173.5      (1998 Dec 26)
DATA:
   2.279    0.400  0.009
   2.298    0.406  0.007
   2.329    0.403  0.007
   2.349    0.411  0.007
   2.404    0.438  0.005
   2.424    0.439  0.007
   2.450    0.433  0.006
   2.547    0.449  0.009
   2.570    0.471  0.008
   2.597    0.458  0.007
   2.617    0.462  0.007
   2.670    0.464  0.007
   2.689    0.454  0.008
   2.711    0.457  0.008
   2.731    0.462  0.010
   2.752    0.480  0.011
   2.772    0.477  0.007
   2.864    0.453  0.008
   2.884    0.464  0.008
   2.904    0.466  0.007
   2.959    0.441  0.008
   2.980    0.440  0.009
   3.004    0.442  0.007
   3.112    0.427  0.011
   3.131    0.424  0.007
   3.168    0.403  0.009
   3.187    0.402  0.009
   3.220    0.411  0.007
================----------------================----------------================
include general
COLUMNS.......: #RV
INFORMATION...: Whatever you want to inform
PHOT. SYSTEM..: UBVRI
RELATIVE PHOT.: F
REDUCED MAG...: T
TIME UNIT.....: 1.0 days
LT CORRECTED..: T
OBSERVING TIME: 2451175.6      (1998 Dec 28)
ZERO TIME.....: 2451170.0      (1998 Dec 28)
DATA:
   5.63648    15.367  14.608
   5.63679    15.360  14.567
================----------------================----------------================
END OF FILE