Using the New Excel Lunar Occultation Report Form Introduction This new Report Form is for all types of Lunar Occultations and is based on the highly successful Asteroid Occultation Report Form. It is an Excel spreadsheet that should be compatible with recent versions of Excel and the freely available OpenOffice. It allows users to quickly enter data related to the observations of Total and Grazing Lunar Occultations. Many of the entries involve the use of drop-down lists so that the user no longer needs to know the codes used in reporting observations. It also means that observations will now use common terminology which will allow use of a macro to create the file required by Occult when Coordinators are reducing observations. A couple words of caution before we start: Most of the cells on this Report Form are not protected. That means you can change them. This can be something that is useful, for example, when extra telescopes are needed (shown later). However, it can also cause problems. If you inadvertently edit the wrong cell and forget what was there, go to the Menu item “Edit” at the top and choose “Undo”. You can do this multiple times if needed. Stop when things have returned to the way they should be. Also, there is very little “error trapping” on this Form. Be very careful in your entries. Double-check every entry before submitting the Form to your Coordinator. Mistakes will lead to emails seeking corrections and will delay the entire process. Finally, if you ever want to return a cell to its empty state (no entry), click the cell and then the Delete key on the keyboard. Opening the Form When you first open the Excel Form, a Directions sheet will be shown. You will also note 3 more sheets available (at the bottom, left): Observer Info, Telescope Info, and Observations. By clicking on the sheet title you can quickly go from one sheet to the next as needed. If you are using this new Report Form for the first time, please read over the Direction page carefully. The information provided here should give you a good start in filling out the Form. Experience in using the Asteroid Occultation Report Form also helps. One thing that needs to be noted for emphasis: many of the column headings have a little red triangle in the upper right corner. This indicates that a Comment or Help is available for that column. By moving the cursor over the cell with the red triangle, you will activate this Comment. It may contain information on what should be included in that column or it may contain a list of available entries. Many entries on the Report Form are made using drop-down lists. These will appear when the cursor is clicked on a cell. Use of these drop-down lists will become second nature with experience. If you plan on making observations from sites that you use quite often (for example a home observatory and a remote site at a vacation home) you should create your own template of these locations. Fill-in all the information that would not change (at least very often) for these sites and then save this Form with a unique name. That way, all you would need to fill-in would be observation specific data, typically all on the Observations sheet. Observer Info At the top of this sheet are 3 cells in which should be placed the Observer’s name, or, in the case of a group, the Representative’s name. The name should be reported in the format: J. Doe. Next, indicate the name of the closest City/Town. Use the format: Denver, CO, USA or Waikanae, NZ. Finally, enter the email address of the person in the top cell. Enter the names (using the format shown) and the email addresses of each person. Telescope Info There is room on this sheet for 10 telescopes and/or telescope positions. If more are needed (as might be the case for a grazing event), move the cursor to the letter “J”, go up to the Menu item “Insert” and choose “Row”. Do this as many times as needed to create additional telescopes and/or positions. Now, go back and edit the “Telescope” column so that the letters are correct and sequential. Alternatively, a second Report Form can be created. If you use more than one Report Form for the same event, name each Form the same except for a “1” or “2” at the end of the name. See “Naming your completed Form” at the bottom. You are now ready to fill-in data about each telescope and its position. You can help in reducing errors by carefully filling in this data. Errors commonly occur when entering positional numbers, whether the latitude is North or South, the longitude is East or West, aperture or focal length of the telescope (mm entered instead of cm), etc. If in doubt, check the Comment supplied for each column for additional information. Please notice that all information on this sheet is required (cells shaded green). Do not leave any information out. This will only create a problem for your Coordinator. Observations Now the fun part begins – entering observations. Unless this Report is for a single graze expedition, it is preferred that extra rows of times are not added. If extra rows beyond the 20 provided are needed, use the same technique as used for adding more telescope positions. Move the cursor to the cell labeled “20”. Go to the Menu item “Insert” and choose “Row”. Do this as many times as needed. Go back and edit this Observation # column so that the numbers are sequential. Alternatively, as mentioned in the Telescope section, additional Forms can be created. If multiple entries of one item are needed (for example, all observers are “A”), the usual Copy and Paste routine can be used instead of the drop-down lists. Use the drop-down list to place the appropriate entry in the first cell. Highlight the cell. Click Ctrl-C to copy the entry. Highlight the cells that are to contain this value. Click Ctrl-V to paste the entries. You can also use the Edit menu at the top to do this. Now enter the data for each observation. Note that the Date and Time MUST be in UTC. Green cells are required, yellow are optional. Some of the yellow items are not usually measured. You careful attention in recording the data on this Sheet is very important. It is quite easy to transpose digits or observations as you move through the Form. These errors will not be detected by this Form and will only show up when your Coordinator tries to reduce the observation and Occult reports an error. This means your Coordinator will have to communicate with you to determine the nature of the error and then correct it before a final reduction can be completed. Naming your Completed Form Save your completed Form using the following example: YYYYMMDD_StarCatalog/Number_Representative.xls Examples: 20051225_ZC1925_Timerson.xls 20051225_ZC1925_Timerson1.xls if multiple Forms are used.