"Future" Astrometry Ignored in Find_Orb

lowe4091 Dec 13, 2015

Hi Bill,


I've created an astrometry file of future positions of (2340) Hathor, using ephemerides from JPL's Horizons program, to determine accurate current-epoch elements with Find_Orb (unfortunately, Horizons has an unconventional epoch, while the MPC's accuracy is insufficient for my purposes).  In particular, I'd like to add Horizons ephemerides after the close approaches to the earth in 2069 and 2086, in order to nail down the elements precisely.


My problem is that Find_Orb is not accepting the future astrometry.  I suspect that it recognizes any measurements from the future as not possible and therefore not allowed (for example, if I change the date from 2021-01-01 to 2011-01-01, the line of astrometry will appear in Find_Orb), but given my particular goal, is there any way this feature could be disabled?


Thanks!


Andrew Lowe

http://members.shaw.ca/andrewlowe/home.htm