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COMET SOFTWARE |
Sergio Foglia s.foglia@libero.it F. Bisleri 11 I-2048 Milano |
COMET SOFTWARE is a set of computer programs to help comet observers in their research. All programs are written using C language and work under DOS.
Comet Software contains the following files::
This file contains the user's location. User should change location using COMSETUP.EXE program.
This file contains the orbital elements of major planets
COMET.ELE is an ASCII file that contains orbital elements of comets; user
may change these orbital elements or add some of new comets in this file.
User may download the COMETCR.DAT file from the URL:
ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/MPCORB/
and run the COMELE.EXE program to upgrade orbital elements included in the
COMET.ELE files.
COMEPH.EXE computes ephemeris for selected comet
COMALL.EXE computes ephemeris of all comets listed in COMET.ELE file.
COMORBIT.EXE shows the orbit of a selected comet for a time given by user,
also major planets orbit are shown
COMORB2.EXE shows the orbit of a selected comet for a time period given by
user, also major planets orbit are shown
Comet Software User’s Guide
As example, ephemeris for comet C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) computed for Milano are erported:
COMEPH: Comet Ephemeris
1996, S.Foglia, Serafino Zani Observatory
Comet: C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang)
T 2002 3 18.9793
w 34.66495 |e 0.98995410
W 93.37037 | Equinox J2000.0q 0.5070584 A.U. i 28.12161 |
m = 7.0 + 5.0 log R + 4.0 log r
Ephemeris for Milano
Longitude: -9.139667 Latitude: 45.191111 Altitude: 126.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date R.A.2000 Decl.2000 Delta r Mag Elong. Motion
year mo day hh mm.mm dd pp.p A.U. A.U. V ° "/h PA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002 5 7.00 17 48.29 +51 48.3 0.41952 1.16955 5.4 101.8W 329 243
2002 5 8.00 17 37.76 +50 23.1 0.42391 1.18633 5.4 104.1W 325 240
2002 5 9.00 17 28.01 +48 55.7 0.42885 1.20307 5.5 106.4W 319 238
2002 5 10.00 17 18.99 +47 26.9 0.43435 1.21978 5.5 108.6W 313 235
2002 5 11.00 17 10.63 +45 57.3 0.44039 1.23645 5.6 110.7W 307 233
2002 5 12.00 17 2.90 +44 27.3 0.44698 1.25309 5.6 112.8W 300 231
2002 5 13.00 16 55.73 +42 57.3 0.45409 1.26970 5.7 114.8W 293 229
2002 5 14.00 16 49.08 +41 27.8 0.46174 1.28626 5.8 116.7W 286 227
2002 5 15.00 16 42.91 +39 59.1 0.46989 1.30279 5.8 118.6W 278 225
2002 5 16.00 16 37.18 +38 31.6 0.47856 1.31928 5.9 120.4W 271 224
2002 5 17.00 16 31.86 +37 5.3 0.48771 1.33572 5.9 122.1W 263 222
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
in the output file orbital elements of comet are reported:
T perihelium time
e eccentricity
q perihelic distance in A.U.
ω longitude of perhelium in degrees
Ω longitude of ascending node in degrees
i inclination in gradi
for each date the following information are given:
Date
Year mo day year month day
R.A.2000 Right Ascension J2000.0
Decl.2000 Declination J2000.0
Delta geocentric distance in A.U.
r heliocentric distance in A.U.
Mag. Total magnitude in the V band
Elong. Elongation from Sole in degrees (E=East, W=West)
Motion
"/h motion in arc sec per hour
PA position angle of motion
Positions for 2002 may 7 is obtained with COMORBIT.EXE: also major planets positions are shown. Three different point of view are reported and inclination respect to ecliptic plane are the following: 45°, 90° e 0°. An 1-A.U. lenght ficticious tail is also shown.
Comet Software is available free at the following URL:
Enter the forum and ask your questions to the author!