Re: [find_orb] New development version of Find_Orb posted

Jim Baer Apr 20, 2012

Bill,

In an earlier note, you mentioned that Find_Orb does not yet process radar observations.

If that is still the case, and if you'd like to add that capability, let me know, and I'll be glad to share the relevant papers and code.




Jim


----- Original Message -----
From: Bill J Gray
To: find_orb@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 3:15 PM
Subject: [find_orb] New development version of Find_Orb posted



Hello all,

I've posted a new development version at

http://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/devel/find_orb.htm

(note that the site for the development version has moved).

I recommend upgrading to this version. It includes some bug
fixes, and a considerably better initial orbit determination (IOD)
routine. As has been mentioned on this list, Find_Orb had a bad
habit of picking out very unlikely orbits for some short arcs.
In these cases, it would pick an orbit that fit the observations
well, with small residuals; but it would pick an "exotic" orbit
(high-inclination, high-eccentricity, etc.) when some mundane,
main-belt orbits fit about as well.

Find_Orb now looks a little bit deeper and considers common
orbits first, before looking for exotic ones. There's still some
work to be done here, but it's much better than it was.

Also: to the source code for creating console versions of
Find_Orb in Linux, OS/X, and Windows, I have added source
code for a new 'fo' program. This is a non-interactive flavor
of Find_Orb. You run it, and it simply determines orbital elements
and writes them out to files without requiring human intervention.

As always, bug reports and comments are solicited.

-- Bill




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