Hi Hartwig,

Thanks for pointing this out. I will see what I can puzzle out here.

I do know of at least one other problem in this category. An
example: A comet Hug-Bell was found and designated as 1999 X1. On its
return, it was found and designated as 2006 O1. Then it got a
permanent designation 178P. So it can appear in the MPC file as
"P/Hug-Bell (P/1999 X1)", then "P/Hug-Bell (P/2006 O1)", then
"P/Hug-Bell (178P)". Guide has no way of knowing that these are all
aliases for the same object. If you look at your comet list, you'll
probably see two of these aliases, and possibly three.

I don't foresee an automated solution to this problem. The only way
around this (to my knowledge) is to delete all but the 178P version.

-- Bill