2023-03-30, 06:27 PM
Dennis,
You can see the epoch of the elements that SkyTools is using in the Object Info dialog at the bottom of the Orbit/Physical Data section. Note that the date shown is for the evening of the day of observation, but the elements in the MP database from MPC or Lowell are for midnight. If the OI lists the elements as 2023 Mar 29, the MP DB will show 2023 Mar 30 0000 UT.
ST4v allows only one set of elements per 200 day interval, so unless you saved the MPC's NEA Today elements for 2023 Mar 23 there currently isn't a way to get them back using a file download. The MPC does maintain files of NEO elements for Today ±15 days, but ST4 doesn't support downloading those under user control currently. That would be a VERY niche functionality & probably not worth Greg's time to implement. The Log function does save a copy of MP elements for later use, but I'm not sure if that would work here either.
The plotted positions for the 2 sets of elements are so different that I can't see any overlaps to judge how far they're displaced.
We could use the trick that we used a few years ago to add addional element sets to 2023 DZ2. Edit the MP DB to add new MPs with designations 2023 DZ2a, 2023 DZ2b, etc with elements from HORIZONS with the desired epoch dates. ST4v used to accept MPs with these designations without any problems. That would show how the changing elements affect the predicted positions.
Phil S.
You can see the epoch of the elements that SkyTools is using in the Object Info dialog at the bottom of the Orbit/Physical Data section. Note that the date shown is for the evening of the day of observation, but the elements in the MP database from MPC or Lowell are for midnight. If the OI lists the elements as 2023 Mar 29, the MP DB will show 2023 Mar 30 0000 UT.
ST4v allows only one set of elements per 200 day interval, so unless you saved the MPC's NEA Today elements for 2023 Mar 23 there currently isn't a way to get them back using a file download. The MPC does maintain files of NEO elements for Today ±15 days, but ST4 doesn't support downloading those under user control currently. That would be a VERY niche functionality & probably not worth Greg's time to implement. The Log function does save a copy of MP elements for later use, but I'm not sure if that would work here either.
The plotted positions for the 2 sets of elements are so different that I can't see any overlaps to judge how far they're displaced.
We could use the trick that we used a few years ago to add addional element sets to 2023 DZ2. Edit the MP DB to add new MPs with designations 2023 DZ2a, 2023 DZ2b, etc with elements from HORIZONS with the desired epoch dates. ST4v used to accept MPs with these designations without any problems. That would show how the changing elements affect the predicted positions.
Phil S.