Hi,
As you may be aware, the MPC has not been updating their orbital elements files for Software, including the format for TheSky. To help out comet observers worldwide I've been maintaining those elements for the past months: See http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/cometels
Since the discovery of 2I/Borisov however, I've received questions from several experienced comet observers using the format for TheSky.
The hyperbolic orbit of the interstellar comet seems to be causing issues, at least in older versions (v6*?). I've had reports of the v6 software hanging, or duplicating the preceding comet (C/2019 Q3) during the import. When elements were entered manually, the resulting ephemerides were not quite accurate (possibly due to the use of a near-parabolic algorithm???). This is of course very understandable given the comets unique and completely unprecedented hyperbolic orbit.
However, to be able to point those people in the right direction (which may be an upgrade of TheSky) I have 2 questions:
- Will TheSkyX be able to import 2I/Borisov from http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/cometelements?format=thesky and display it correctly/accurately? Or is this something that still needs to be addressed in a future update?
- In older versions (v6.?), the number of comets that can be imported is apparently limited to 1000. Is this limitation still valid in TheSkyX, or are more comets allowed in more recent versions? (If so, since which version)
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Kind regards,
Gideon van Buitenen