2021-07-09, 09:25 PM
Hi BMD,
I followed your directions & downloaded a set of osculating elements for 2019 NB7 that's supposed to have a close approach on 17 July. I used the 'Enter New MP' button to add the elements calculated for 2021 Jul 17.75 successfully as that's close to the close approach time. When I tried to add another element set at 2021 Jul 17.25, ST4 went through all the calculations, but the MP database still only has the elements for 2021 Jul 17.75. I retried to add 17.25 being careful to follow each step, but No Joy! Only the 2021 Jul 17.75 elements are present. Were you able to get the extra element sets into your MP database? From Greg's description of the operation of ST4, I expected to see a database entry for both 2021 Jul 17.25 and 2021 Jul 17.75. The DB has entries for 2021 Mar 11.00 and 2021 Jul 23.00 so multiple entries are allowed. Maybe I need to add elements for Jul 16 & 18 instead of multiple entries for Jul 17, like 17.25 & 17.75.
With 2.4x10^6 element sets in my database it takes a long time to update all the calculations after the addition of each new element set. I think the option to add multiple sets of elements before SkyTools does all of the calculations to speed up the plotting process would help. This is my first experience with adding elements to the MP database so I don't know if this is how it's supposed to work or not.
This is an interesting activity, but a challenging one. Success has eluded me so far. It has interesting possibilities for use of the iTelescope system which offers access to scopes in Australia, Chile, Spain & the western US.
Phil S.
I followed your directions & downloaded a set of osculating elements for 2019 NB7 that's supposed to have a close approach on 17 July. I used the 'Enter New MP' button to add the elements calculated for 2021 Jul 17.75 successfully as that's close to the close approach time. When I tried to add another element set at 2021 Jul 17.25, ST4 went through all the calculations, but the MP database still only has the elements for 2021 Jul 17.75. I retried to add 17.25 being careful to follow each step, but No Joy! Only the 2021 Jul 17.75 elements are present. Were you able to get the extra element sets into your MP database? From Greg's description of the operation of ST4, I expected to see a database entry for both 2021 Jul 17.25 and 2021 Jul 17.75. The DB has entries for 2021 Mar 11.00 and 2021 Jul 23.00 so multiple entries are allowed. Maybe I need to add elements for Jul 16 & 18 instead of multiple entries for Jul 17, like 17.25 & 17.75.
With 2.4x10^6 element sets in my database it takes a long time to update all the calculations after the addition of each new element set. I think the option to add multiple sets of elements before SkyTools does all of the calculations to speed up the plotting process would help. This is my first experience with adding elements to the MP database so I don't know if this is how it's supposed to work or not.
This is an interesting activity, but a challenging one. Success has eluded me so far. It has interesting possibilities for use of the iTelescope system which offers access to scopes in Australia, Chile, Spain & the western US.
Phil S.