Appears to be in the latest MPCORB as the most recent entry with a provisional designation. So just added. This appears to be a find well after close approach if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly.

Number  Designation     Epoch          a                e             i             Node          w               MA          H    Slope   

0            2022 BZ3    2459600.5  1.8773079  0.1201187 21.76572  102.08986  318.28056  54.47922  19.87  0.15


The really odd thing is that Horizons says "No Matching Bodies Found" and a search at https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search says "Unknown Object: 2022 BZ3". At 7:30CST Jan 30. I'm assuming that those services are just not updated yet which seems strange as that rock "is" in the MPC.

Maybe if I had waited several hours, it would be there.

Also a fresh download of the MPC NEA Today does not bring it in - "No Match". I'm hesitant to get the full MPC using ST for fear of hosing the db but I did it anyway. The download, extraction, reading and epoch building process takes ~30 minutes. Yes, I know, my desktop PC is old and only has 16Gb RAM and an i5 processor ;=[

After doing that, St could find the rock.

My question is would it be better to always do a single minor planet download rather than refresh the full MPC db?

Hi MP Hunters,

In checking the CNEOS site for what's coming in February & March, I noticed the large objects (138971) 2001 CB21, (455176) 1999 VF22 & 2015 DR215 plus the small but much closer approaching (within 0.005 AU) 2018 CW2. (455176) 1999 VF22 is predicted to reach 16 magnitude around midnight Feb 19 & 20 and (138971) 2001 CB21 should be brighter than 16 magnitude from Feb 11 to Mar 4 reaching a peak brightness of 14 on Feb 28.

Unfortunately, 2015 DR215 & 2018 CW2 are duds, never predicted to be brighter than 17.8 & 18.1 mag respectively. Well within the reach of imagers, however.

Just a heads up,

Phil S.

Apparently another one detected on the way out.   Not visible from North America anyway, but a real screamer! 28"/sec at close approach of 0.00062 AU. It would have been visible from Japan: [attachment=2244]

Could have spoiled someone's day.

Phil S.

Hello,

I have written a crude program for creating an observation calendar. Sample output is attached. It takes a list of objects (rows) and indicates for a number of days (columns) time and highest altitude during the period from astronomical night to my bedtime.

Question: can one do something like this in ST4?

With best regards,  tiha

Attached Files

  EasyMessier.pdf (Size: 16.07 KB / Downloads: 16)

Fixes/Additions/Changes in Version 4.0j R10

Visual & Imaging

• The Database Power Search tool has been added to the top level Tools menu
  
• Minor Planet download source files from the MPC have been updated to download the files from https://minorplanetcenter.net/data
  
• The display of comet tails on charts has been improved to accommodate better observation data, which now includes tails for many more comets
  

• A new feature has been added to the Real Time Telescope menu that will generate the files required for the Nexus DSC to target comets and bright minor planets (see the dialog for additional information). 
  
• The Real Time Sky Tour was inheriting custom View Times from the Best Now mode. Right-click on the View Times column in Sky Tour mode to reset custom View Times for lists that may have been affected.
  
• The Sky Tour was failing to fully recalculate the tour when custom View Times were changed
  
• A crash related to printing Observing Awards has been fixed
  

• It is no longer possible to close an Imaging Project with no filters and exposure goals assigned.
  
• It is no longer possible to remove a filter from an Imaging Project that has had an observation logged using that filter
  

The MP 2022 BB has a predicted close approach on the evening of 2022 Jan 25 for North America & the morning of Jan 26 for Europe. The predicted peak brightness is 16.4 magnitude ~1800EST - twilight. Here is the predicted path as seen from the Houston, TX area: [attachment=2231]

The sky will still be too bright to observe at maximum brightness from Houston, unfortunately. Farther east the sky will be darker. At least we get a few days warning for this one & it's moving fairly fast. Today I downloaded the MPC's NEAs at Today's Epoch & MPCORB (in that order - probably should have reversed it). Back over 10^6  MPs in the database.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

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.

   

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.

Hello,

Here is a quick guide to obtaining the data needed in SkyTools to as accurately as possible plot the path of an asteroid as it passes close to the earth.

Here are a few things to know first:

1. SkyTools uses Osculating Orbital Elements to plot the position of an asteroid or minor planet. These elements are calculated as if only the asteroid and the sun exist. With time, other objects in the solar system will begin to tug (or perturb) the motion of the asteroid, and that will change the orbit. So you always need a fresh orbit, and this is why SkyTools has options available for downloading elements regularly. The moment in time when the orbit is valid is called the epoch of osculation (or just the epoch).

2. SkyTools accumulates orbital elements over time. The set of elements with an epoch that best matches the date of your calculation will be used. That way you can get new elements in the future, but SkyTools will still be able to accurately plot the position on the night you observed it, even if that was long ago.

3. The orbit of a Near Earth Asteroid is being perturbed by the earth and moon as it makes its close pass. This will cause a change in the orbital elements as it passes by the earth, so it is often critical to update the orbital elements just prior to when you are going to observe the asteroid.

4. Many Near Earth Asteroids don't actually have well defined orbits in the first place. This is because many of them are too faint to observe except when they are close to the earth. Many have only just been discovered as they approach the earth. As they approach, astrometry (carefully measured positions) is obtained every possible night, and these new positions are used to update and improve the orbital elements. As important as point No. 3 is, the improvements of the orbital elements as the asteroid approaches us can be even more important to accurately plotting the position of the asteroid as it passes by the earth. This is yet another reason to update your elements just prior to observing.

4. In order to make the database efficient, orbital elements are sorted into different "standard epochs" when they are stored. This is a period of time, 200 days long, that orbits are sorted into. The epoch dates in general that you see from the Minor Planet Center's MPCORB download are typically these same standard epochs.

SkyTools will only store one set of orbital elements for each standard epoch. This is where it gets a little tricky when it comes to Near Earth Objects (NEOs), because the MPC recently began publishing elements at a standard epoch date in the future when you download the MPCORB data. Aside: the alternative ASTORB database from Lowell Observatory is computed for an epoch close to the current date.

As a result, SkyTools needs some rules to follow to know when to replace an existing set of orbital elements with a new one. It can't simply keep the elements with the latest epoch, because you may want to update the elements near the time of a close pass, which may be prior to the date of the elements that are already in then database. To solve this problem in SkyTools, there are now cases when a new set of elements will always overwrite the ones already stored for that epoch.

When you download the MPC NEA Today or MPC Daily Update from within SkyTools, the downloaded elements will always overwrite the current orbital elements in the current standard epoch. That way, you can always update your elements when a close pass is coming up (and the elements improve). These elements are updated daily, to the current epoch, and hopefully with the latest data, so they will often be the most accurate. Prior to a close pass you should download these elements. This is all most observers of close approaching asteroids need to do.

For Advanced Users
For those who want to enter elements from JPL's HORIZONS system, this is done by pasting the elements into a SkyTools dialog. When manually entering data, such as that from HORIZONS: if you edit an existing set of elements, this will always overwrite what was there before. If you create a new set of elements, be sure it has an epoch more recent than the one in the database. Otherwise it will not overwrite the one already there. Do not kludge the epoch. It must be accurate.

How do you tell if everything is OK with your orbital elements?

1. Open The Minor Planets Database from the Data menu
2. Enter the designation of the minor planet under Designation and press the Enter key.
3. When it finds the minor planet, it will list all of the orbital elements by epoch. Double-click on any one to see the full data.

Prior to observing a close pass, you want to see the top set of elements have an epoch very close to the current date. If you are planning to manually add new elements, ensure that there is no set of orbital elements for a date in the future, beyond the date of closest approach. If there is one, delete it, or replace it manually, by editing the data. To delete it, close the Osculating Elements dialog, right-click on the elements you wish to delete, and select Delete Element Set.

The MP 2022 AB is predicted to reach max brightness tonight ~3:30 EST in Gemini. The predicted path is shown here: [attachment=2186]

Closest approach doesn't occur until 2022 Jan 20, but it will be fainter than 17th magnitude then.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

I have released an update to version 4.0j R9. You should be prompted to update when you start SkyTools, but this may not happen immediately. To force the update, select "Updates, Registration & Feedback" from the top level Setup menu and click Check for Updates.

The primary reason for this release is to fix a rather perplexing issue that caused a range of apparently unrelated problems when connecting to mounts using ASCOM. This happened for all versions of SkyTools 4. Many had no trouble at all. But others had symptoms that ranged from not being able to connect, to crashes. The most common report was receiving a "missing property" error. This was caused by a call to ASCOM that found its way into a thread in SkyTools. ASCOM does not play well when being called from a different thread. If you were having any kind of problem connecting to your mount, this will likely fix it.

Additional fixes:

Visual & Imaging

• The Eyepiece/Camera Viewer for the Atlas now defaults to being locked to the telescope position if opened with a mount connected to SkyTools. This should help people find where the telescope is pointing on the atlas.
  
• Chart labels for some moving object trails had the hours for the time truncated such that the first digit was not visible.
  

• When printing logs using the Print/Copy logs for Observing Award feature: observing conditions text will now wrap when printed, and the text copied to the clipboard is better suited to pasting into Word or Wordpad.
  
• The Crab nebula was using the larger diameter of 8'x8' when estimating the visual difficulty. This outer diameter is mostly H-Alpha emission and not visible to the eye. The diameter was adjusted to a more appropriate 6'x'2 for the calculation, which now provides better results.