2022-11-23, 06:11 PM
For those interested in these things, the MPC has changed the standard epoch of their MP orbital elements from 2022 Aug 9 to 2023 Feb 25. ST4v began to use the new value several days ago for the downloads of MPC's NEAs at Today's Epoch datafile.
I'm currently downloading MPC's MPCORB data file to update all of the MPs to the new epoch. If I correctly understand how ST4v handles the MP's orbital elements, all of the MPs currently in the database will have the new 2023 Feb 25 epoch. NEOs added by downloading the NEAs at Today's Epoch file will have that day's epoch if they are new discoveries, but current ones will retain the 2023 Feb 25 epoch until after 2023 Feb 25. NEOs that were in the DB before 2022 Nov 16 are included in the 2022 Aug 9 standard epoch 'group' so those objects can have 2 entries in the DB for element epochs & ST4v uses the epoch that's closest to the date of the position calculation.
This won't matter to most ST4v users. It's just a heads up.
Phil S.
I'm currently downloading MPC's MPCORB data file to update all of the MPs to the new epoch. If I correctly understand how ST4v handles the MP's orbital elements, all of the MPs currently in the database will have the new 2023 Feb 25 epoch. NEOs added by downloading the NEAs at Today's Epoch file will have that day's epoch if they are new discoveries, but current ones will retain the 2023 Feb 25 epoch until after 2023 Feb 25. NEOs that were in the DB before 2022 Nov 16 are included in the 2022 Aug 9 standard epoch 'group' so those objects can have 2 entries in the DB for element epochs & ST4v uses the epoch that's closest to the date of the position calculation.
This won't matter to most ST4v users. It's just a heads up.
Phil S.