Here we are on this subject again. I want to hunt down the asteroid Nysa (44). Probably a binocular object high in the SE tonight. I've tried searching its name (Nysa, 44 & Nysa (44)) using the Object Search in the Position Ephemeris and the Data/Minor Planets (Number & Designation). It does not even come up in the nightly planner - Current Bright and Interesting Minor Planets, filter Asteroids & Minor Planets.
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MPCORB, MPC NEA Today & MPC NEA have all been updated yesterday but not necessarily in that order if that matters. As small things definitely matter in complex software. The Minor Planet Database indicates there are 28,972 minor planets with 4 saved epochs.
Hi BMD,
(44) Nysa is a main belt asteroid so it's not included with the NEA download. You'll need to either download the full MPCORB or the main belt objects or just (44) Nysa to get the elements. Also, ASTORB would include it. 29k objects don't represent the full MPC database - there should be >>900k.
Hope this helps,
Phil S.
I did the MPCORB yesterday as I mentioned. Why should I need to download it every day? And did an ASTORB (Lowell) a week ago. I have no idea why there are only 28,972
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How the heck does a rock with an H of 6.94 and a diameter of 70Km disappear from an active minor planet database?
Nysa is near opposition and bright, which means it is included in this month's Current Bright and Interesting Minor Planets list. So all you really need to do is to update your superscription to this list so that it is downloaded.
UPDATE 2: I checked more closely and the January minor planets is updated. If you did not have the bright minor planet subscription enabled in November, or didn't start SkyTools during that month, you may not have downloaded Nysa. If so, you will need to download it directly via MPCORB or ASTORB. Please see the note below about that.
Once this list is downloaded, Nysa is added to your database, so you do not need to download it in other ways.
By the way: because there are so many faint asteroids that people can't actually observe, it isn't a good idea to download them all. So SkyTools provides a variety of ways to narrow down the number of asteroids when you download them. The first is the subscription to the bright and interesting minor planets, which is all most people will ever need.
Another way is to download MPCORB or ASTORB using the various filters provided, particular the filter to limit it to bright minor planets only.
I hadn't looked at your screen capture because it didn't seem relevant to your question. But I just glanced at it, and you have a serious problem with your database. The fact that you have multiple Ceres listed is the indication that your database is unhealthy. Until recently there were some bugs in the minor planet database management. If you ever forced the program to close while it was importing or restoring minor planets, this would also corrupt your database.
Here is how to clean up your database:
1. Delete any minor planet lists in the Auto Generated Lists folder. This are typically: Observable Minor Planets, and Distant minor planets.
2. Delete the Bright and Interesting Minor Planets list from the Current folder
3. If you have added Nysa to a list, delete Nysa from it.
4. Open the minor planet Data via the top level Data menu
5. Click Cleanup / Delete
6. Select Delete All Minor Planets and click Ok
7. After it is complete close the Minor Planet dialog by clicking Accept
8. Open your Subscriptions and force an update of the Bright and Interesting Minor Planets list
Check for Nysa by searching again. If it isn;t there, you have several options to add it via the Minor Planets Data dialog:
Click Download/Import Data
1. Select MPCORB or ASTORB and have it install bright minor planets only
2. Select Get single minor planet from the MPC, type Nysa and wait for it to add it to the database
Be sure to never interrupt SkyTools when the Minor Planet Data dialog is open. In some cases it may appear to be frozen, and may even report that it is unresponsive. Leave it be until it is finished. I have threaded most of the operations, but when large numbers of minor planets are installed, with many different epochs, some normally quick actions can take longer than expected.
As you can see from my Nightly Planner list, all the available bright ones are still in the DB. Ceres, Pallas, Iris, Pomona, etc, etc, etc. Nysa and Ceres are only 14° apart and transit between 8 and 9PM. Iris transits ~midnight and it's in the list. Very frustrating. What happened to Nysa?
I cleaned and re-downloaded the Lowell ASTORB, MPCORB, MPC NEA Today and the MPC NEA in that order. just over 60 minutes.
I then re-ran the nightly planner and Nysa is still not in the list! Is it because it transits at 21:04 and I have my from time 21:03.NO because others that transit near and b4 that time are in the list.
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I now have more in the MPDB and a search in the position ephemeris will find it. Easy now to at least run that and make the IA chart. This is inexplicable.
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Since using ST2, I knew I would never be fluent in it as I am in some other astro programs. With ST4, I'm now sure I will always be behind some intrinsically invisible barrier to making it pleasant to use. I want to make good use of it, but it just keeps hitting me up side the head.
Your Bright and Interesting Minor Planets list is clearly still broken. Obviously its not supposed to have multiple entries for Ceres. Did you delete it as instructed in step 2? This step also had to be done in the correct order, before cleaning up your minor planets. It appears as I would expect if it was not deleted in step 2.
Is 5 minutes too long to wait for the cleanup minor planet database (not responding)?
How long should the current bright and interesting minor planets update now take? Been 3 minutes now. And what makes a 21 magnitude asteroid fall into the interesting category?
Been trying to get a position for Nysa since ~10am.
Nysa now in the nightly planner.....
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Wait for it. Your database is corrupted. This can cause all sort of problems causing long waits. On the other hand, long waits can be normal if you installed all of the minor planets and I have no idea if you did that or not. I also have no idea how fast your computer is. Please help me help you.
Unless you did advanced stuff like deleting minor planets or elements, your database was likely corrupted by forcing SkyTools to close.
I have not yet seen an answer to my last question. If my instructions were not followed exactly, then you are going to continue to have problems.
(2022-01-21, 06:53 PM)theskyhound Wrote: [ -> ]I hadn't looked at your screen capture because it didn't seem relevant to your question. But I just glanced at it, and you have a serious problem with your database. The fact that you have multiple Ceres listed is the indication that your database is unhealthy. Until recently there were some bugs in the minor planet database management. If you ever forced the program to close while it was importing or restoring minor planets, this would also corrupt your database.
Really odd that my MPDB would have issues as I frequently (~3 wks) clean as instructed and download the full set of elements from mostly the MPC normal and more often the Daily and NEA. Maybe once a month grab the Lowell elements as they do not update very often but are standardized epoch. Once again why Nysa would not be in either the MPC or Lowell that I fetched a few days back simply mystifies me..
And yes,back months ago I was having issues with downloads stalling and the program dumped. But not since Summer.