Management for Users in ROCS

Coordinate formats

Equatorial

For the equatorial coordinates, the position of an object as a function of right ascension and declination (plus proper motion) should be provided as a set of consecutive fields (separated by spaces). Each one of the fields are described in the following table (required fields are highlighted):


Description Format Default value
Right ascension in hours, minutes and seconds hh:mm:ss.s Required
Right ascension proper motion in milliarcsec per year (i.e.: ΔRA·cos(δ)) A real number It is assumed to be 0.0 if absent
Declination in degrees, minutes and seconds dd:mm:ss.s Required
Declination proper motion in milliarcsec per year A real number It is assumed to be 0.0 if absent
Reference epoch A real number It is assumed to be 2000.0 if absent

Minor planet

For certain objects in the Solar System (such as asteroids, TNOs, etc.), providing their heliocentric orbital elements is much more adequate than providing the equatorial coordinates. The format for the required orbital elements can be provided manually (fields separated by spaces) or can be copied from the characters 21 to 103 (columns 4 to 11) at the MPC. For additional information regarding the MPC format, please visit the following link. Each one of the required fields are described in the following table:


Important notice: The orbital elements provided are assumed to be constant and valid for the observation period. No propagation of the orbital elements is done due to interaction with other solar system bodies, or due to any other reasons. Therefore, MPC orbital elements may not be suitable in some cases.


Description Format Default value
Epoch (i.e.: time of mean anomaly)
In years, months and fractional days or in MPC packed form		 yyyy mm dd.ffff
or
yyymdffff		 Required
(Except fractional part of days)
Mean anomaly in degrees from perihelion A real number Required
Argument of perihelion in degrees at J2000.0 A real number Required
Longitude of ascending node in degrees at J2000.0 A real number Required
Inclination in degrees at J2000.0 A real number Required
Eccentricity A real number Required
Mean daily motion in degrees per day A real number Required
Semi-major axis in Astronomical Units A real number Required

Comet

When computing the ephemeris for some Solar System objects (such as comets) it may be better to use the orbital elements computed at perihelion. The format for the required orbital elements can be provided manually (fields separated by spaces) or can be copied from the characters 15 to 79 (columns 2 to 9) at the MPC. For additional information regarding the MPC format, please visit the following link. Each one of the required fields are described in the following table:


Important notice: The orbital elements provided are assumed to be constant and valid for the observation period. No propagation of the orbital elements is done due to interaction with other solar system bodies, or due to any other reasons.Therefore, MPC orbital elements may not be suitable in some cases.


Description Format Default value
Date of perihelion passage
In years, months and fractional days		 yyyy mm dd.ffff Required
(Except fractional part of days)
Perihelion distance in Astronomical Units A real number Required
Eccentricity A real number Required
Argument of perihelion in degrees at J2000.0 A real number Required
Longitude of ascending node in degrees at J2000.0 A real number Required
Inclination in degrees at J2000.0 A real number Required

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