Loads and writes particle data to/from our own binary format. The format is
defined as follows. The operations are based on abstract position entities, so
this is not suitable for loading star groups or particle groups.
- 32 bits (int) with the number of stars, starNum repeat the following
starNum times (for each star)
- 32 bits (int) - The the length of the name, or nameLength
- 16 bits * nameLength (chars) - The name of the star
- 32 bits (float) - appmag
- 32 bits (float) - absmag
- 32 bits (float) - colorbv
- 32 bits (float) - r
- 32 bits (float) - g
- 32 bits (float) - b
- 32 bits (float) - a
- 32 bits (float) - ra [deg]
- 32 bits (float) - dec [deg]
- 32 bits (float) - distance [u]
- 64 bits (double) - x [u]
- 64 bits (double) - y [u]
- 64 bits (double) - z [u]
- 32 bits (float) - mualpha [mas/yr]
- 32 bits (float) - mudelta [mas/yr]
- 32 bits (float) - radvel [km/s]
- 32 bits (float) - pmx [u/yr]
- 32 bits (float) - pmy [u/yr]
- 32 bits (float) - pmz [u/yr]
- 64 bits (long) - id
- 32 bits (int) - HIP
- 32 bits (int) - TYClength
- 16 bits (char) * TYClength - TYC
- 8 bits (byte) - catalogSource
- 64 bits (long) - pageId
- 32 bits (int) - particleType