Object information

Neo Planner V2.3 - Object information - Explanations

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© Copyright: The data comes from official access to web services from MPC, JPL, NASA and ESA, whose origins are the tireless measurements of dozens of professional and amateur observatories around the world

IAU Observatory Code:

A guide for getting an IAU observatory code you find here: Guide to Minor Body Astrometry (minorplanetcenter.net)

List of observatory codes: List of observatory codes - Wikipedia

START:

The calculated local starting time of the planning is determined from various sources.
The basis is the daily loading of current astronomical data of a location from IpGeolocation.io, which takes place automatically when NEO Planner is started. See also: GEO Settings.
The offset hours and minutes that were specified in the Common Restrictions settings are added or subtracted from the determined local sunset and sunrise times.

The start and end times of the planning can only be reliably calculated in this way,
since automatically determined twilight times are not suitable for depicting the observation slots obtained from empirical values.
Only the observer himself can determine when the observation should begin after sunset. This depends on the experience of the observer himself.

Siderial time:

The sidereal time is a central and by no means one of the most important parameters of NEO Planner.

The magic formula is: (Special design for NEO Planner by Father Christoph Gerhard (K74)):

Siderial time (decimal) = 6.625 + 0.06570982 * (Current date - '2019-01-01' + 1) + geographical longitude / 15 + 1.002738 * (midnight UT (decimal))

Then the conversion into hours and minutes takes place.
The formula shows that longitude plays an important role, which enables NEO Planner to be used in all regions of the world.

The sidereal time in combination of RA object is the criterion for reliably determining NO GO areas,
since the transit times of objects through the meridian have to be taken into account, especially with German mounts.
In addition, the sidereal time helps to calculate the correct order of the objects according to RA.

Both the sidereal time and midnight UT is saved with every planning in the SiderialTime.txt file in the <Daily Planning> folder (see File Structure settings).

Observation slot start - end:

The observation period in local time of the coming night.

The basis is the daily loading of current astronomical data of a location from IpGeolocation.io, which takes place automatically when NEO Planner is started. See also: GEO Settings.
The offset hours and minutes that were specified in the Common Restrictions settings are added or subtracted from the determined local sunset and sunrise times.

Save list:

On the one hand, the entire window is saved as .jpg in the archive folder. In addition, the content of the list display is saved both in .txt and .csv files for further use (see File Structure settings).
Additional backup of the Object Information Window as an .HTM file.
Now both the Revise Window and the Object Information Window can be saved as an HTM file on the NEO Planner Server and accessed or linked for free use on the Internet via any browser.

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Object:

NEO, NEOCP or comet designations.

score:

The score that is displayed on the NEOCP for new objects, please refer: The NEO Confirmation Page (minorplanetcenter.net).

# observ.:

Number of all observations of the objects published by the MPC.

last observ.:

Last published observation date of the object. If the last observation was more than 90 days ago: color RED

last observation from:

The IAU observatory with the last published observation date of the object.

# opposit.:

Number of previously observed orbits of the object around the sun.

orbit type:

The asteroids listed here essentially belong to four groups. These are Apollo, Amor, Aten and Atira.
Some of them are PHA potentially hazardous objects.

Earth MOID:

The Earth MOID of an object is the value in AU of the previously calculated smallest possible distance to earth in an orbit.
This value is permanently adjusted when recalculating orbital elements through new observations from MPC and JPL.

H is the absolute magnitude of Solar System bodies.

Diameter in m:

The diameter of an asteroid is calculated using a standard formula.

Credit: Image from: Conversion of Absolute Magnitude to Diameter (sfasu.edu)

NEO Planner is calculating the diameter with:

Hdurchpot = -0.2 * H
Diameter (m) = (1329 / 0.3872983346207417) * (10 ^ Hdurchpot) * 1000

Flyby informations:

The flyby information comes from web service access to ESA (NEOCC) and CNEOS databases. A distinction is made as to whether objects are approaching (blue-violet) or moving away (orange-red).
Objects that pass the earth today are shown in green. In general, only those flyby data can be displayed with a minimum distance of 0.5 AU.

The Vmax value is only supplied by NEOCC and represents the maximum expected brightness of the object during flyby.

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