Re: [guide-user] Asteroid 2004 BL86

I must say, that there is still a simpler way, one without problems and pitfalls, and one which allows YOU to select the exact NEOs that you wish to observe in the order in which you want to observe them.

MPECsort is a free and highly effective software for GUIDE that allows you to obtain asteroids and comets in RA order with DEC restrictions and magnitude limitations of the most important NEOs that are current; this gives you the ability to update to the current Daily Orbital Update every morning for the latest objects.

It is found at Arkansas Sky Observatories, and is maintained by the same. Just follow the complete instructions for download and you will have one of the most powerful tool for organizing asteroid observations:

http://www.arksky.org/MPCSort/Home.html

It automatically updates your GUIDE program as well as provides you with a working list/schedule for all asteroids that you chose within your parameters for any given night.

------------
Dr. Clay

Arkansas Sky Observatories
http://www.arksky.org/
ASO Petit Jean Mountain /MPC H41
ASO Petit Jean Mountain South /MPC H45
ASO West Conway /MPC H43
.......serving astronomy since 1971
____________________

----- Original Message -----
From: alfredo caronia alfredoc49@... [guide-user]
To: guide-user@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: [guide-user] Asteroid 2004 BL86

Hello Bill! In relation to this step of your email 27/01/2015:

" Anyway. The new scheme is a heck of a lot simpler, and the bugs appear
to have all vanished. It does require, however, that you download
'mpcorb.dat' so that _all_ asteroids are replaced with one consistent
dataset of orbital elements. "

I wanted to say that the option "Add MPC Comets / Asteroids" in "Extras" menu does not work because refers to two outdated links!

In fact, it reads: "The Minor Planet Center (MPC) and the IMCCE
Shops provide orbital elements for comets. Guide updates ITS list of comets
using Both sources; MPC Gives currently-observable comets, all IMCCE
comets since about 1995. (Data for historical comets is Already built
Into the DVD Guide.) You can click on to download the Following
some of These files, getting orbital date for newly-found objects and
Already known for improving on orbits objects. About 600 KBytes will be
downloaded. "

But the MPC link and Ithe MCCE link included in the note above are no longer active!

I therefore assume that the automatic update of the data of asteroids does not work anymore! (Maybe I'm wrong? Possibly correct me!)

So, being so, I ask for confirmation if the suggested alternative ( viable for the future ) is the manual download of mpcorb.dat and, in this case, i wonder in which folder, I should put the file of mpcorb.dat!
Should I create a new folder in C: / Guide for instance?
Thanks for tips and clarifications!

Best Regards!

Alfredo Caronia

2015-01-27 3:05 GMT+00:00 Bill Gray pluto@... [guide-user] <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>:

Hi Roger,

Updating via the critical list, or any "sublist", is very likely to
lead to trouble. In fact, it's not even an option with the currently
posted software at

http://www.projectpluto.com/new.htm

I'd advise downloading that, and then getting the current 'mpcorb.dat'
from the MPC site.

I know I described the issue somewhere, but can't find it now, so here
goes: For many years, Guide tried to handle asteroid and comet updates by
downloading the smaller files MPC provides, and attempting to figure out
which objects were updates and which were new objects, and trying to account
for the fact that sometimes you got the same objects with new designations.
To say that the resulting code was bizarre would be an understatement. That
led to bugs. There may have been more inquiries about problems with adding
comets and asteroids than any other part of Guide.

Anyway. The new scheme is a heck of a lot simpler, and the bugs appear
to have all vanished. It does require, however, that you download
'mpcorb.dat' so that _all_ asteroids are replaced with one consistent
dataset of orbital elements.

-- Bill

On 01/26/2015 07:32 PM, roger.curry@... [guide-user] wrote:
> I updated my asteroid list with the critical list today but can not find the asteroid using 2004 BL86. I also went to the area it is supposed to be in and it did not show up under that designation, How do I find it in Guide?
>
>