Hello Roger (in Jacksonville ;-),


In the list of orbital elements for comet C/Hoenig you give in your mail, the
longitude of ascending node (uppercase omega, hereafter W) is not present. As
the inclination (i) is 106 degrees -- orbit nearly perpendicular to the
ecliptic -- and if Guide assumes W is zero if the corresponding field is left
blank, it may explain the great difference between positions published in S&T
and the ones you compute with Guide, without having given all the necessary
elements.


Laurent Zimmermann
http://users.skynet.be/zmn/cab

----- Original Message -----
From: Roger Curry <rcurry@...>
To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 6:12 PM
Subject: [guide-user] More trouble with orbital elements


> Hi, Bill, and the list,
>
> I am having a difficult time manually inputting orbital elements!
>
> Here are the elements, taken off of the JPL comet list, for the new
> comet Hoenig:
>
> C/Hoenig (2002 04)
> Epoch = 52484
> q = 0.77026488
> e = 72.79792
> i = 106.70607
> w = 320.82716
> Perihelion = 02.48176 Oct 2002
>
> When I enter those elements into Guide, I end up with an ephemeris that
> is off a country mile from the ephemeris attached to the S&T bulletin.
> Does anyone have any suggestions? Perhaps I am entering the data in the
> wrong places? All help appreciated.
>
> Roger in Jacksonville, FL