Entering Asteroid Data

Truman Kohman Oct 19 7:42 PM

Bill Gray and other cognoscenti,
I am having trouble trying to enter modified elements of an asteroid,
in particular 1937 UB, which is now identified with long-lost Hermes.
The Guide 8.0 Users Guide says (p. 76), "You can select an existing
object to alter it (useful for element updates), or either class of new
object." (comet or asteroid).
However, while "Extras - Edit Comet data" permits one to add a new
comet or asteroid or edit an existing comet, it makes no provision for
editing an existing asteroid. So I entered 1937 UB Hermes as a new
asteroid with the new JPL elements. Now 1937 UB Hermes shows up in the
list "Edit Comet data - Choose comet". And "Go to - Asteroid" or "Go to -
Comet" will both bring up the same 1937 UB Hermes.
The positions are (almost) identical with those in the JPL Web
ephemeris for 1937 UB using (almost) identical elements. BUT the
magnitudes are very wrong! I wonder whether Guide is not using the G value
(0.15) in the proper way for an asteroid.
How can one enter new or revised data for an asteroid without its
being recorded as a comet, so that the magnitudes are correct?
Truman


Truman P. Kohman, Departments of Chemistry and Physics
Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
Phone: 412/279-6056 Fax(CMU): 412/681-0648 Internet:
tk11@... (best for correspondence, ASCII documents),
tpkohman@... (best for images, coded attachments, etc.)