Re: [guide-user] Pluto's new satellites

Bill J Gray Apr 4, 2007

Hi Masaki,

You're right. I had Guide running with the "label by name"
option set (right-click on any planet or natural satellite, then
on "Display", then on "Options", and you'll see this check-box).
Guide then labels these objects S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2.

I've just fixed this, so that when "label by name" is checked,
they are called Hydra and Nix. When it is not checked, they are
labelled P3 and P2.

Several things remain to be done:

-- There has been some new data improving the orbital elements
for both objects. Their positions as shown in Guide are good,
but could be better.

-- Guide's list of natural satellites is getting a bit out of
date. The satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus found in
2000 and 2001 are all shown, but not those from 2003 and later
(including the five outer satellites of Neptune). Part of the
difficulty is that I didn't anticipate properly that there would
be so many of these objects. I think I've figured out a good
way of showing them, though. If I have time, they'll be part
of the next update.

Thanks for pointing out the problem. (By the way, I'm still
baffled by the artificial satellite table problem!)

-- Bill