AAVSO file type question

I am assisting in readying a presentation for our local astronomy club
in regards to variable stars and am doing the internet portion of the
presentation for a club member who abhors computers. I visited the
AAVSO web site and downloaded some files to begin researching the
topic, in this instance regarding Algol. I grabbed a plain .gif file
available for Algol at the site and also a zip file from this
location: http://www.aavso.org/charts/PER/BETA_PER/. The .gif file
was no problem viewing, but the zip file contents contained a file
ending with an extension of .ps

I tried a few default viewers on the .pa extension, and even tried
renaming the extension to .gif, the but still could not get it open.
Any ideas for what type of file this is and what will open it? Any
help much appreciated.

That ought to be a postscript file. Acrobat Distiller may be able to
get a pdf from it.

--matt

Hogrider wrote:

the zip file contents contained a file
ending with an extension of .ps

Thanks Matt for the comeback. Guess I'm old enough to know better but
too young to know what a postscript file is. With your info about the
possible file format I found an online converter of the postscript .ps
format to .pdf at http://www.ps2pdf.com/convert/index.htm

Seems the .ps files in the zip format at the AAVSO site are newer
versions of the same file posted as a .gif. Thanks again.

H
From: (Hogrider)
H
Subject: AAVSO file type question
H
Date: 18 Sep 2003 19:30:47 -0700
H
Organization: http://groups.google.com/
H
H I am assisting in readying a presentation for our local astronomy club
H in regards to variable stars and am doing the internet portion of the
H presentation for a club member who abhors computers. I visited the
H AAVSO web site and downloaded some files to begin researching the
H topic, in this instance regarding Algol. I grabbed a plain .gif file
H available for Algol at the site and also a zip file from this
H location: http://www.aavso.org/charts/PER/BETA_PER/. The .gif file
H was no problem viewing, but the zip file contents contained a file
H ending with an extension of .ps
H
H I tried a few default viewers on the .pa extension, and even tried
H renaming the extension to .gif, the but still could not get it open.
H Any ideas for what type of file this is and what will open it? Any
H help much appreciated.

You can skip the PS dile; it's a PostScript version of the same
chart you already got the GIF file for. For curiosity's sake,
however, Acrobat, the newer versions, will convert a PostScript file
to PDF and then play it. For the instant purposr, you don't need the
PS file at all; the GIF one has the map you need.

---
þ RoseReader 2.52á P005004

H I grabbed a plain .gif file available for Algol at the site and also a zip file from this location: http://www.aavso.org/charts/PER/BETA_PER/.

You can skip the PS dile; it's a PostScript version of the same
chart you already got the GIF file for. For curiosity's sake,
however, Acrobat, the newer versions, will convert a PostScript file
to PDF and then play it. For the instant purposr, you don't need the
PS file at all; the GIF one has the map you need.

---
þ RoseReader 2.52á P005004


For the variable Algol mentioned above, the .gif format seemed to be
an older version of the locator chart (1996) while the zip file
contained a more recent image chart (2001)in postscript format. The
XCYG files I downloaded/converted were identical to each other though.
As these are the only two I have grabbed so far, I cannot say what
the rest are like, but for the purposes of the my presentation I would
think either version would be suitable. I have not tried a more
recent version of Adode's software, but I did try using my current
Acrobat Reader v5, which would not open the postscript file. Thanks
for the heads up though about the software -- I'll check out Adobe's
website to see what is up.