Where is Pallas ?

[theskyhound]

Asteroids require fresh orbital elements, which have to be downloaded regularly. There are now so many minor planets that its not practical to have all of them downloaded and displaying on your charts unless you really need them. So it takes a little bit of effort to download the data. The exception to this is the minor planets included with the monthly current minor planets observing list (subscription). If you have that enabled under subscriptions, then a selection of bright (like Pallas) and interesting minor planets that are at opposition each month are downloaded along with the current minor planets observing list. The next opposition of Pallas (when it will be best observed) is in May, so it won't be included with the current minor planets list until then. But that doesn't mean you can't observe it now if you want to.

So what can you do to add Pallas to your database?

1. Open your subscriptions from the top level setup menu and ensure that you have the subscription to the Current Bright and Interesting Minor planets list enabled. This will keep you up to date on most of the bright minor planets and asteroids.

2. Select Minor Planets from the top level Data menu. Click the Download/Import Data button. Click the Bright Asteroids button. This will install Pallas along with many a manageable number of bright asteroids.

3. Follow the instructions in (2) but click the Get single minor planet from the MPC button and enter Pallas. This will download the latest elements for Pallas only.

The orbital elements for minor planets are only good for 3-6 months so if you want to observe them in the future, start with the data download to ensure that you have the latest elements.