MPC/CBAT/ICQ

Format For Astrometric Observations Of Comets And Minor Planets

Astrometric observations of comets and minor planets 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
• From satellite
• Radar

Related links:

• Packed provisional designations
  • Packed designations for comets discovered/recovered in the past year.
• Observatory codes

Observations formatted according to the schemes detailed above should be sent via e-mail to mpc@cfa.harvard.edu (Japanese observers should send their observations to our Japanese coordinator, Syuichi Nakano [syuichi@cfaps1.harvard.edu]). Observations should be sent unencoded as plain text. In particular, users of MIME-compliant mailers are asked not to use BinHex/Base64 encoding!

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