NEOCP, occultations, Almagest, etc.

Bill J. Gray Aug 25, 2000

Hi Matt,

"...By definition the NEOCP only has objects for which no elements
are available." This is "sort of" true. They are objects with large
uncertainties, yes. I believe what the MPC does is to fit guesstimate
orbits to them; these are then used to generate the ephemerides
available on the NEOCP. I'm fairly certain they aren't magically
generating ephemerides without first finding orbital elements.

However... since you're willing to settle for even hour intervals...
that's _much_ easier to do, as a user-added dataset:

http://www.projectpluto.com/extras.htm#neocp

As you suggest, this "workaround" should work just fine. I rather
prefer it myself; either the interpolation scheme or the idea of
recovering the elements using Gauss' method would have taken time and
have been more error-prone!

I've put a few other new/updated files on the Web site. In no special
order: Oliver Kloes has sent in a new version of the "extra-solar planet"
dataset, including eight newly-announced systems. See

http://www.projectpluto.com/extras.htm#planet_systems

to get the updated files. Giuliano Pinto sent in an Italian-language
version of the page about the Almagest:

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

Jan Manek sent in a Guide-readable version of a list of asteroid
occultations for 2001. Download this file and unZIP it in your Guide
directory:

http://www.projectpluto.com/occ01reg.zip

and run Guide and click on "Tables... Miscellaneous", and you'll
see this list mentioned in the resulting dialog box.

-- Bill