;set up arrays to contain desired quantities from AGC
diam1=fltarr(5000)
type1=fltarr(5000)
agcnum=fltarr(5000)

 ;Prepare to read AGC

        DESCRIPTION = ''
        NGCIC = ''
        WHICH = ''
        TELCODE = ''
        WIDTHCODE = ''
        SIGN = ''
        AGCNUMBER = 0L
        outputstr = ''

;Opens up a window to pick out AGC catalog to be read
catname_agc=dialog_pickfile(/read,filter='*.txt')

if (catname_agc eq '') then begin
    print, 'no catalog defined'
    cat=''
    read, 'define catalog yourself? (y/n):', cat_agc
    if (cat_agc eq 'y') then begin
        catname_agc=''
        read, 'Which catalog?', catname_agc
    endif
    if (cat_agc ne 'y') then begin
        print, 'no catalog to plot'
        return
    endif
endif

        ;READ AGC
print,'reading the AGC catalog'
openr,agclun,catname_agc,/get_lun

count=0
 while(EOF(agclun) ne 1) do begin 
  readf, agclun, AGCNUMBER,WHICH,NGCIC,RAH,RAM,RAS10,SIGN,DECD,DECM,$
      DECS,A100,B100,MAG10,BSTEINTYPE,VOPT,VSOURCE,FLUX100,RMS100,$
      V21,WIDTH,WIDTHCODE,TELCODE,DETCODE,HISOURCE,IBANDQUAL,IBANDSRC,$
      POSANG,IPOSITION,ipalomar,$
      format = '(I6,A1,A8,1x,2I2.2,I3.3,A1,3I2.2,I5,2I4,i6,2x,I5,I3,2x,I5,I7,1x,I7,I4,1x,A4,A4,i1,1x,I3,2i3,i5,2i3)' 

; add desired elements to arrays
  agcnum(count)=agcnumber
  diam1(count)=a100/100
  type1(count)=bsteintype
  count=count+1
endwhile