Widgets

Widgets is an ASCOM server full of handy functions, intended to spare you the pain of programming them yourself.

Download Widgets 3.1.25 (full distribution, 1.6 megabytes)

Download Widgets 3.1.25 (executable only, 70k)

If you intend to use the Widgets.Ephemeris object, you will need Kepler and Novas from the ASCOM Download Page. If you don't want to use the ephemeris generator, then you don't need these programs (they are late-bound in Widgets). If you are already using ACP or PinPoint, you shouldn't need to get these separately.

About Widgets

Widgets is an ASCOM server and client application that exposes a number of methods and properties that may be useful to astronomers, especially those operating robotic observatories. In brief, Widgets provides:

Tools object:

• Calendar conversions, e.g., from Gregorian Calendar to Julian Day Number.
• Derived math functions - all the higher math and trig functions not included in VBScript but frequently encountered in astronomy.
• Translation of packed MPC format designations to unpacked format.
• Various commonly-used formatting functions, such as sexagesimal to decimal and back.

Ephemeris Object:

• Generate the positions of the sun, moon, and major planets.
• Generate the positions of any minor body for which you have orbital elements.
• Load orbital elements directly from the ASTORB database.
• Find the time of sunrise and sunset from any position on earth.
• Find the time of astronomical twilight beginning and ending for most locations on earth.
• Find the altitude, azimuth, and hour angle of any object in the ephemeris server.

Some of the methods and properties in The ephemeris object are a wrapper for DC3 Dreams' freeware NOVAS and Kepler engines - you will need these to use the ephemeris generating methods and properties. The Widgets component provides added functionality by retrieving elements from the Lowell ASTORB database and handling some other chores, and is also somewhat simpler and more intuitive to use. Otherwise, there are no advantages to using the ephemeris object instead of NOVAS and Kepler natively, and there are some disadvantages - speed, primarily.

Preferences object:

Provides a simple set of properties and methods that allow you to store data in the system registry and retrieve it. This is intended to allow you to store script preferences, but may be handy for other things.

Targets object:

Starting with Widgets 3.1.1, there is a functional Targets object within widgets. It is currently experimental (in alpha testing), and has some pathnames defined at compile time. You will need a c:\plan directory. Once the component is out of testing, we will add property-based path preferences and document what these methods do. In the meantime, what they do can be guessed or inferred from looking at developing code in the latest Ultimate script.

Have a look at the documentation before downloading if you want. Please note that the Widgets documentation has not been updated since version 3.1.0.6, which was some months ago now. Again, new stuff will be documented once out of testing.

Robotic Observatory home page.