Small HNSKY asteroid file, data and update (TheSky format) from :
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/SoftwareEls.html
Small HNSKY comet file, data and update (TheSky format) from :
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/SoftwareEls.html
Large MPCORB database:
MPCORB is a database of asteroid orbits maintained by the Minor Planet Center. It gives orbits for all numbered and observable unnumbered asteroids, and can be downloaded from the ftp directory ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/MPCORB. Some people have run into troubles in accessing this data from the MPC site. Mirror sites have recently been created, (info from http://www.projectpluto.com/mpcorb.htm) :
http://mpcorb.astro.cz/ ftp.astro.cz with username mpcorb and password Ceres.
ftp://byte-o-matic.net/pub/mpcorb
MPCORB conversion:
On all these sites, the MPC provides the main database in two forms: MPCORBCR.DAT and MPCORB.DAT. Both contain exactly the same data, but the former is in PC format (with a carriage return/line feed at the end of every line of data), the latter in Unix format (a line feed but no CR at the end of each line). All numbered minor planets are also provided in a SKYMAP.CAT file. The file SKYM_HNS.ZIP contains following conversion programs:
MPC_HNS.EXE, Small DOS program. This will convert MPCORB.DAT or MPCORBCR.DAT to HNSKY file HNS_AST1.AST. The complete MPCORB.DAT contains also the latest discoveries and contains in December 2002 about 187000 minor planets. Kuiper belt objects such as (28978)Ixion are included.
SKYM_HNS.EXE, Small DOS program. This will convert SKYMAP.CAT to HNSKY file HNS_AST1.AST. The SKYMAP.CAT file is produced by the MPC and contains in december 2002 about 52000 minor planets.
The programs are provided with the Pascal source code and a batch file for
starting them easily in Windows. Just please them (.EXE and .BAT) in the
same directory as the database files.
Back to the Hallo northern sky planetarium software program