Extended Computer Service
The Minor Planet Center operates an Extended Computer Service (ECS) which allows subscribers to access complete data sets of observations and orbits, PDF versions of the electronically-available MPC/MPS/MPO and observations of specific objects. The ECS consists of a number of services. Each service is described below. A subscription to the ECS allows access to all the services.
Details of the regular Computer Service are also available.
MPCAT
This service allows the downloading of complete files of orbits and various files of identifications.MPCAT-OBS
This service allows the downloading of complete sets of observations of minor planets, comets and natural satellites. The primary files are complete through observations published in the most recent MPC/MPS batch. Links to files complete through the most recent mid-month MPS batch are also available.MPCUPDATE
This service allows the downloading of files associated with each batch of Minor Planet Circulars. Files are provided containing observations, orbits, new identifications, details of new numberings and namings, and ASCII versions of the pages from the MPCs. Files may be downloaded individually or as a zip file containing all the files. At any one time, the files for two batches of MPCs are available: the latest batch and the previous batch.MPCOBS
This service allows the downloading of observations of user-selected minor planet, comets and natural satellites. Options to restrict the selection to observations made between/before/after certain dates or by specific observatory codes are available. The extracted observations may be displayed in the user's browser or saved to a user's local disk.MPC Archive
This service allows the downloading of PDF versions of all the issues of the MPC/MPS/MPO that are available in electronic format.Details on how to subscribe to the Extended Computer Service are available.
