MPO Asteroid Viewing Guide - Overview
The MPO Asteroid Viewing Guide provides all the information you need to put
together an asteroid observing session. With it you can find those asteroids within reach
of your equipment and above the horizon, generate ephemeredes and finder charts, review
which asteroids are reaching their brightest, minimum distance, or opposition on a given
date, and much more. Also included are tables listing appulses (close approaches) of
asteroids to deep-sky objects, brighter stars, and even other asteroids.
There are pre-generated ephemeredes for the numbered asteroids (at the time the
database was generated) that cover a 30 day span centered on the date the asteroid is
brightest in the current year. A "Quick Charts" feature lets you create a finder
chart for a given asteroid that you can print out and take to the computer or telescope.
The MPO CD comes with recent versions of the Minor Planet Center and Lowell Observatory
asteroid databases. Utility programs are included to convert the latest version of these
databases off the Internet to a format compatible with the MPO programs. You'll always
be up-to-date!
About Numbered Asteroids
The calculations for the pre-generated ephemeredes, oppositions, and
appulses are done in late October each year. The calculations are performed against the
numbered asteroids at the time. The MPO table includes only the numbered asteroids.
Since asteroids are being numbered at a growing rate, the "cross-over number"
of 100,000 used in MPO programs for many years was getting dangerously close to the
highest actual numbered asteroid. This "cross-over" number is added to the
un-numbered asteroids in ascending order when converting the MPC and Lowell data tables.
For example, if the highest numbered asteroid is 75,000. The next asteroid in the table
would be assigned a numbered of 175001.
All MPO programs, including Canopus and Connections, now use a cross-over number of 500,000. When
you first start using MPO2006 or above, you should immediately download the MPC and Lowell
asteroid tables and do a full-conversion. This will establish the new cross-over numbers
in the tables.
