Processing(Info)

MPC Documentation

Welcome to the Minor Planet Center's documentation page.Listed here are links to all the pages on our website that containdocumentation on the various aspects of the MPC's operation.

Note that this is a work in progress and all links are not yet present.Please report non-functioning links (or requests for new documents) viathefeedbackform.

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Orbital Elements

• Export orbit formats
• Export orbit format for minor planets
• Export orbit format for comets
• Export orbit format for natural satellites
• Indication of perturbing bodies
• Calculation of the orbital uncertainty parameter, U, and orbit quality codes
• Packed designations
• Packed dates
• Alphabetic notes for orbits

Astrometric Observations

• The IAU-approved ADES format
• The current observation format
• Alphabetic notes for observations
• Astrometric catalogue codes
• References on observations

Designations

• New- and old-style minor planet designations
• Temporary minor planet designations
• Packed provisional and permanent designations
• Cometary designation system
• Packed designations for comets discovered/recovered in the past year
• Periodic comet numbers
• Dual-Status objects

Observing Procedures

• Guide to Minor Body Astrometry
• How to specify observational details
• How to specify telescope details in the observational header (Added 2004 August 2)
• Guide to using the MPES (PDF)
• Guide to video observing (PDF)
• A script to generate mini normal places from video frames

Pot Pourri

• List of observatory codes (formatted)
• List of observatory codes (plain text)
• Observatory codes
• Pointing Data
• List of orbit computers (and other codes) on the Daily Orbit UpdateMPECs
• Representing Non-English Characters
• List of program codes

Low-level technical lists

The links below contain low-level information generated during MPC operationorMPC preparation and are not formatted for casual viewing.

• Break down of amateur discoveries
• Yearly break down of observations
• Status of designated objects (by year and half-month)
• Statistics on residuals from observations of minor planets, by observatory code
• Statistics on residuals from observations of numbered minor planets, by observatory code