Uncertainty in Orbital Elements

cjkent@btinternet.com Apr 9, 2014

I've been using find_orb in my undergraduate project observing NEAs and it has been immensely useful so firstly thanks Bill and whoever else is behind this.

 

However I have a question regarding the uncertainties in the orbital elements calculated after an auto-solve: how are they calculated?

I've looked through both the project pluto website and here but was unable to find any details so apologies if it has been asked before. Here you mention the uncertainty parameter U but it was my understanding that was separate from the individual uncertainties on the elements.

 

Thanks in advance,

Chris