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Basic idea

MPC Packer converts MPC object designations between the readable form and the packed MPC form. The packed form is mainly needed where older MPC formats such as OBS80 provide only a short fixed-width object field. The GUI detects whether an entered designation is already packed or still unpacked and then creates the other form.

The conversion is intentionally conservative. Safe MPC designations are converted. Tracklet or submission identifiers that look like free project names and cannot safely be recognized as MPC designations are not guessed; they are marked as not safely convertible.

Using the GUI

On startup the input box is empty except for the hint line Enter your designation(s) here.. You can paste one or more designations directly, one per line. Convert fills the result table. Examples inserts typical test cases. Clear resets the input and the result list.

Use File > Load file to choose a file. The program detects the format from extension and content, extracts designations, removes duplicates while preserving first occurrence order, and then converts the found values. Use Export to write the result list back to a suitable file format.

After loading, the status line shows an import report: detected file type, rows or records read, candidates found, recognized designations, removed duplicates and rejected candidates with examples. This makes it immediately visible whether an ADES or OBS80 file was really recognized as such.

Result table

The table shows input, status, detected direction, object type, output and note. Successful rows contain the new designation. In fixed-mode tools, input that is already in the requested form is returned unchanged. Error and warning rows remain visible so unsafe designations do not silently disappear.

TXT input

A TXT file is normally read line by line. Empty lines are ignored. Each non-empty line is treated as a designation unless it is recognized as an OBS80 header or metadata line. If a text file contains ADES-PSV-like columns separated by vertical bars, it is treated as a PSV table.

2007 TA418
K07Tf8A
1P
C/2020 F3
S/2004 S 1

CSV, TSV and PSV

CSV, TSV and PSV are read as tables. For CSV, the delimiter is detected automatically from comma, semicolon, tab or vertical bar. If headers exist, MPC Packer first looks for clear MPC or ADES fields: permID, provID, trkSub, designation, desig, object, Objekt, Eingabe or input. Without a matching header, the first column is used.

For ADES-like tables the priority is permID, then provID, then trkSub. A permanent identifier therefore wins over a provisional designation. A pure tracklet identifier is preserved as input, but it is not blindly reinterpreted as an MPC object designation.

permID|provID|trkSub
|2007 TA418|
433|1898 DQ|
||XJ42A

JSON

JSON input may contain simple lists, single objects or nested structures. Strings are read directly. For objects the program searches the same field names as for CSV/ADES. This supports both simple custom export files and typical ADES-like JSON structures.

[
  "2007 TA418",
  {"provID": "1995 XA"},
  {"permID": "433"},
  {"designation": "C/2020 F3"}
]

XML and ADES XML

XML files are read structurally. The program walks through the elements and uses text from elements such as permID, provID, trkSub, designation, desig, object, Objekt, input or Eingabe. XML namespaces are ignored so both ADES XML and simple custom XML files can be processed.

OBS80

OBS80 lines start with a fixed object field. MPC Packer recognizes typical observation lines from the object field and date part and extracts only the object field at the beginning. This avoids shifting observation date, right ascension, declination, magnitude and observatory code. Header lines such as COD, OBS, MEA, TEL or NET are skipped during text import.

Output formats

The output format is selected automatically from the file extension. .txt writes a tab-separated text table. .csv writes a semicolon-separated CSV file with UTF-8 signature so Excel reliably detects localized column names. .json writes a list of result objects. .xml writes a simple mpcPackerResults document. .ods creates a simple OpenDocument spreadsheet. .xls creates an HTML table that Excel can open.

All outputs contain the same columns: input, status, direction, object type, output and note. Choose the language of columns and notes with --lang de or --lang en.

CLI programs

MPCPacker.exe detects the direction automatically. MPC_pack.exe expects unpacked designations and outputs packed ones; if the input is already packed, it is returned unchanged. MPC_unpack.exe expects packed designations and outputs unpacked ones; if the input is already unpacked, it is returned unchanged.

MPCPacker.exe --input designations.csv --output result.json --lang en
MPCPacker.exe --convert "2007 TA418" --convert K07Tf8A --lang en
MPCPacker.exe --input swan-ades.txt --output result.csv --import-report --lang en
MPC_pack.exe --input ades.psv --output packed.csv --lang en
MPC_unpack.exe --input observations.obs --output unpacked.txt --lang en

With --import-report, the CLI writes the import report to standard error. CSV, JSON, TXT, XML, ODS or XLS output therefore remains clean on standard output or in the output file. Without --output, the CLI programs write a tab-separated table to standard output. Without input parameters the program shows help; the graphical interface starts only when the GUI program is launched without a CLI task.