Minor planet 2000 QA24 Animation

Eamonn - if you request an acknowledgement from the MPC (using both the ACK and AC2 fields in your header submission) then that's all you get. If you got a mail back from the MPC like this:

The receipt of a message (probably containing observations) is hereby acknowledged.

Your message's ACK identification string is:
Batch 0016

The formatting code returned the following statistics:
Number of header lines read = 8
Number of observation lines read = 3

then your observations have been received. That's all the MPC will send you unless its a weird object or a new object.

If we need to communicate designations or problems to you, a further message will follow when this batch has been processed.

I'm surprised they gave you a 48hr deadline for a further reply - was there something special about this object? They don't normally reply...

I checked the ephemerides for 2000 QA24 and the last time it was observed was December 24th. Your measurements of Jan have not been used - presumably because your residuals were too high.

If you send me on your original FITS images plus your original submission to the MPC I can have a look and see what the problem was.

Dave

Great capture Eamonn,
that certainly is a faint one.

Dave,

I now see the problem. You were right about the response from MPC.

Here follows the submission of MP 2000 QA24 to MPC (This object was to the west of Pollux).

T00005 C2007 01 13.97174 07 43 06.68 +22 39 48.1 16.0 R J62
T00005 C2007 01 13.99350 07 43 05.15 +22 39 47.4 16.1 R J62
T00005 C2007 01 14.01703 07 43 03.72 +22 39 45.6 16.0 R J62

Pinpoint had picked another MP, but also picked up a new suspect,. See details. The first image position details the magnitude, this magitude was reduced due to change in transparency. There was a 20 minute time diference from the first to the last imaging of this set. Below set of images was of a new suspect at 19.2V (18.5R) magnitude

T00004 C2007 01 13.87736 03 07 27.53 +20 24 58.7 17.4 R J62
T00004 C2007 01 13.89613 03 07 28.87 +20 25 32.7 18.6 R J62
T00004 C2007 01 13.91628 03 07 29.76 +20 26 12.4 18.5 R J62

This was the response from MPC (automatic responder). I only have just noticed that the 48 hour response applies to possible new objects. I actually had sent other MP positions of other targets, not shown above.
Apparently, QA24 was'nt neccessary to obtain positions according to MPC. There were other observatories that had imaged the target.


Here follows MPC response: QUOTATION

The receipt of a message (probably containing observations) is hereby
acknowledged.

The formatting code returned the following statistics:
Number of header lines read = 7
Number of observation lines read = 9

---

FEEDBACK ON COMPLIANCE OF YOUR HEADER'S TEL LINE WITH THE DOCUMENTATION

Your submission contained the following TEL line:
TEL 0.4-m f/5 SCT + CCD
This is what our processing software read or converted it to:
TEL 0.4-m f/5 Schmidt-Cassegrain + CCD

*** Your TEL line was not formatted correctly, but was converted by our ***
*** processing software. If it was not converted properly, please read ***
*** cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/info/ObsDetails.html ***

---

The junk rating refers to non-useful material contained in your e-mail message.
Your message contained 0.00% 'junk' material.
-- This is an excellent rating.

If we need to communicate designations or problems to you, a further message
will follow when this batch has been processed.

**IMPORTANT NOTICE**
Note that at times (particularly near New Moon or during northern-
hemisphere fall/winter) it may take 48 hours (or more) to get designations
for new objects back to you.

This is the default acknowledgement text. You can modify it by including
the ACK keyword in the header block (see
cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/info/ObsDetails.html for more
details). Only one ACK line per message should be included and it
should be no longer than 80 character, e.g.:

ACK Batch 080 (a rather stunning batch)

would return to you a file containing "Batch 080 (a rather
stunning batch)". The actual text is unimportant, but should mean
something to you!

Although your message is being acknowledged now, it is not
guaranteed that it will be processed immediately.

Please do not respond to this message!

END OF QUOTE

Eamonn A

Eamonn - where did you get the T00005 and T00004 designations from? Or did pinpoint fill those in for you?

For QA24, you should probably have used its official designation (35283) and that's why your measurements haven't shown up in the MPC ephemerides

T00005 - it would be absolutely brilliant if that was an unknown. Fingers crossed for you!

Dave

PS - change your TEL line (in the software you use) to:

TEL 0.4-m f/5 Schmidt-Cassegrain + CCD

or Gareth will eventually savage you

Dave

Dave,

Those designations were filled in by PinPoint.

OK, I know the mistake now. I should have submitted under designation 35283.

Garerth should have replied if he suspected TOOOO5 was new. We'll see what happens. Interestingly enough, I tried to pick it up again on Monday 15, it obviously moved off the frame. Actually, I didn't think of recovering it. I do have 3 measurements of it, so it might be possible to project the orbit ahead. I haven't tried MPC Orb yet. Have you ever tried it? I did MPC Checker and there was nothing there. Closest MP was nearly 15 minutes away.

Eamonn A