The International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center

Processing (Info)

Format For Astrometric Observations Of Comets, Minor Planets and Natural Satellites

Astrometric observations of comets, minor planets and natural satellites submitted for publication in the Minor Planet Circulars (MPCs), Minor Planet Electronic Circulars and IAU Circulars are represented by one or more 80-column records. The format differs depending on whether the observation is optical (photographic, CCD or visual), radar or satellite-based.

• Optical
  • "Roving Observer" format
• From satellite
• Radar

Related links:

• References
• Packed provisional designations
  • Packed designations for comets discovered/recovered in the past year
• Alphabetic notes for observations
• Observatory codes
• You should also ensure that you have read this Guide to Minor-Body Astrometry

Observations formatted according to the schemes detailed above must be sent via e-mail to obs@cfa.harvard.edu. Observations must be sent unencoded as plain text. In particular, users of MIME-compliant mailers are asked not to use BinHex/Base64 encoding! Encoded messages are not decoded by the automated processing routines (a deliberate design decision), so any encoded observation batches will not be recognized as containing observations and will be deleted.