Hi folks,

Arild Moland wrote:

"...Guide expects asteroids in [mpcorb.dat] to be ordered in a
series without holes in it. If you use a file with holes in the
series, Guide will show the asteroids but not their numbers."

And 'more info' for such objects gets confused, too. It's been
on my "I ought to fix that" list for a while, ever since MPC
started posting elements of assorted classes of objects (distant
objects, NEOs, etc.) that don't have consecutively numbered
asteroids in them.

About asteroid occultations: one _can_ make top-quality occultation
predictions with Guide, but it does take a bit of effort and practice
before you can do it reliably. I've written up a few words on the
subject at

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

The basic problem is that orbital elements of sufficient quality
are not available "off the shelf" from any source; you have to
collect high-quality astrometry and generate an orbit from it,
using either OrbFit or FindOrb. It's not a really big deal, but
you do have to learn a few things about orbit determination.

In general, you'll probably find it easier to use one of the
sites linked to from the above URL. Then you can just click and
get a map showing the predicted path of the occultation. But you
may find an occultation neglected by the "usual sources", or may
simply want to get an idea as to how the whole asteroid occultation
prediction process works.

-- Bill