Origin: The data comes from official access to web services from
MPC,
JPL Horizons,
JPL Scout and
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Column headings or buttons are highlighted in blue-green in the text.
Planning revision strategy
The order of the objects is always in ascending order according to R.A. at the time of planning.
When controlling the equipment automatically, attention must be paid to the following:
Observation times near Meridian
The local observation times (obs.t. LT) should ideally be around the local transit times (Transit LT)
of the objects (Meridian), in order to get the best possible images of the objects during the measurement.
In any case, you should keep an eye on the maximum altitude (altitiude), the higher the better.
Considerations for moonlight
If the 'Taking the sky brightness by moonlight into account' option is selected in
Execute Planning screen,
NEO Planner automatically takes moonlight into account when calculating the necessary number of images per stack (group).
The value of the Lunar sky background per object is determined from the JPL HORIZONS API.
However, if the automatic function is deactivated, the following method is recommended:
Around the actual full moon time, when the moon is always above the horizon during the night session, increase the number of groups (stacks) in the
CCD/CMOS parameters
in the 'Number of measurements (stacks) / object for MPC' line.
You should manually double or triple the minimum number of stacks. Example 06 or 09 depending on the phase of the moon.
In this case, the number of stacks is increased from the outset during the planning phase. Changing the sky background value is not recommended.
Do not change stack counts on objects observed during moonless periods in the list.
Please don't forget to reset the values later to the value of 03.
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Best observation strategy for the confirmation of NEOCP objects
After the revised planning and after starting the observations, you can access a special screen by clicking the ' NEOCP Check' button in Revise below.
Brief summary, more details in the NEOCP check screen:
There you activate the background job 'Background Check (every 5 minutes)'.
Two new screens then show changes on the NEOCP page of the MPC at regular intervals.
You can observe these changes and if there is something interesting you stop the background job.
Then pressing 'NEOCP Check' will update the current and revised plan with new NEOCP data while retaining the revised plan.
The 'Refeshing Revise' button then updates the Revise and
Object Information screens. Then you can start the background job again.
When the NEOCP background check is active, a newly assigned provisional number is now displayed in dark violet
in the Hint column of the Revise screen for NEOCP objects, if available.
In this case, the old NEOCP designation is also displayed in dark violet.
In addition, some columns in the Object Information screen are displayed in
dark violet.
If a new provisional number is displayed in the Hint column, it can be useful to call the dark violet
colored 'Smart Execute Planning' in Revise.
NEO Planner always plans all objects that are in the selected RA area in the Settings
Common restrictions and in the defined area of the declination in the Settings
Object Selection.
It is the defined range of RA hours west and RA hours east of siderial time. NEO Planner then schedules these objects according to the
CCD/CMOS parameters, regardless of altitude.
This means that objects can also appear in the Revise screen with the Altitude displayed in red, mostly objects at the end of the planning.
NEO Planner does not automatically intend to exclude objects below the allowed altitude, but indicates this with red color in the
Altitude column in the Revise screen. Because such objects can be quite interesting.
You can now revise the displayed list and, for example, by deleting individual objects or by moving objects or by increasing
no.gr. (stack) values on previous objects you can achieve that all objects on the list in the
Altitude column are displayed in green .
Then observing below the permitted altitude should not happen in N.I.N.A. or ACP.
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List header data
Siderial time RA at 00 LT and true midnight
The sidereal time is a central and by no means one of the most important parameters of NEO Planner.
The magic formula is: (Special design for NEO Planner by Christoph Gerhard (K74)):
Siderial time (decimal) = 6.625 + 0.06570982 * (Current date - '2019-01-01' + 1) + geographical longitude / 15 + 1.002738 * (midnight UT (decimal))
Then the conversion into hours and minutes takes place.
The formula shows that longitude plays an important role, which enables NEO Planner to be used in all regions of the world.
The sidereal time in combination of RA object is the criterion for reliably determining NO GO areas,
since the transit times of objects through the meridian have to be taken into account, especially with German mounts.
In addition, the sidereal time helps to calculate the correct order of the objects according to RA.
Both the sidereal time and true midnight UT is saved with every planning in the SiderialTime.txt file in the <Daily Planning> folder (see
File Structure settings).
Display of the light conditions via a list box. At higher latitudes in the hemispheres, reduced data is shown around the time of the summer solstice and missing astronomical time.
Observation slot start - end
The observation period in local time and universal time of the coming night.
The basis is the daily loading of current astronomical data of a location from IpGeolocation.io,
which takes place automatically when NEO Planner is started. See also: GEO Settings.
The offset hours and minutes that were specified in the Common Restrictions settings
are added or subtracted from the determined local sunset and sunrise times.
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Save list
On the one hand, the entire screen is saved as .jpg in the archive folder.
In addition, the content of the list display is saved both in .txt and .csv files for further use (definition of the path in
File Structure settings).
Additional backup of the Revise screen as a
'https://www.k87dettelbachvineyardobservatory.bayern/html/Revise_(Obs_code).htm' file, if allowed in the Privacy.
Now both the Revise screen and the
Object Information
screen can be saved as an HTM file on the NEO Planner Server and accessed or linked for free use on the Internet via any browser.
new start LT
Here you can enter the start time of the first object manually if it should deviate from the suggested start time.
By pressing the >Smart execute planning< button next to it, a short re-planning takes place with the specified start time.
Recalculation method
All changes in the planning list can be recalculated using two methods. With this button you can specify whether changes are only replanned after pressing the
red Execute smart planning button when the background color of the button
Recalculation method =
olive, or whether the plan should be recalculated immediately after each change in the list when the background of the button
Recalculation method = dark blue.
You can switch back and forth between the two methods while editing the plan, depending on the application or taste. In any case, the last setting is saved.
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Execute smart planning
The schedule is run again with the specified start time on the left, but significantly reduced. There is no re-determination of the objects,
only a correction of the suggested observation times. The positions of the objects are also adjusted. In addition, the XML and JSON data for N.I.N.A import, ACP and .csv
files are reissued in the archive folder for further use there. Useful times for smart planning are between the current nightly hours.
We have also a significant performance improvement in the revise screen. The revision of the planning is now faster and takes place without recalculation.
The planning is only completed by pressing the Execute smart Planning button. A red button indicates that planning still needs to be done.
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Marking Positions
By marking positions you can perform various actions such as C-copy, M-move,
DEL-delete, G-adjust stack groups, E-ephemeris details,
I-Scout or MPC details.
W =Asteroid Watch: Eyes on Asteroids - Home - NASA/JPL
The local observation times of following objects in the list can be moved forward between 0 and 600 minutes by right-clicking a line.
These changes are marked by a colored display of in column obs.t. LT.
Red means: Execute smart planning is pending, green means: rescheduled.
Zero is also allowed for undo.
Manual time entry
Particularly interesting for the observation of exclusively NEOCP objects is:
The observation local time can also be entered manually in the format hhmm by pressing T on the position.
If possible, an input around the best observation time when an object passes the meridian is a good value.
These manually times are marked by a colored display of the local observation time obs.t. LTRed means: Execute smart planning is pending,
green means: rescheduled.
If a manual observation time was entered using the T-function in Revise, it is displayed in the
Hint column in dark green.
After one or more of the editing functions have been executed, the Execute Smart Button will appear red.
The observation data of the list will only be recalculated after replanning using the Execute smart Planning button.
The following rule applies to Execute smart Planning:
If the manual time (function T) is less than the calculated time of the position, the manual time is overwritten with the calculated time.
S-function - one of the most valuable features of NEO Planner.
Pressing 'S' on an object line takes you to the Execute Search screen.
There the object position is displayed centrally with a star/deep sky background at the time of recording and the track length of the recording.
This allows one to control the path of the object taking into account the star field and the FoV of the equipment.
In addition to the planned path of a NEOCP object, its 1-Sigma and full range deviations are also displayed as ellipses or rectangles if appropriate.
For NEOs or comets, their 3-sigma deviation is displayed.
Controlling whether the start position or center position of the object in Execute Search
is displayed in the center of the starmap picturebox can be done in the
Execute Planning screen with the <Center Position> checkbox.
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The contents of the columns
object - number
Comets in green, all NEOCP objects in red and NEOs with a provisional number in
blue are displayed that can be observed according to the parameter settings.
Numbered NEO and objects with special orbit classes are displayed in black.
Obs.date - Observation date and time in UT
The optimal observation times of the objects are first calculated based on their meridian passage and thus the sequence is determined.
The observation time in UT is then calculated according to the calculated exposure times of all recordings.
R.A. and Decl.
Neo Planner calculates observation times in R.A. order of currently visible according to the official ephemeris of the MPC
The indicated position in R.A. and Dec. corresponds to the calculated Obs.time.
The ephemerides of NEOCP objects are identified using JPL Scout API with an accuracy of about 1 minute.
Ephemerides of non-NEOCP objects are determined using Horizons API.
Notice for NEOCP objects:
Experience has shown that Scout delivers better position results, especially with fast runners. However, NEO Planner cannot provide exactly the same positions as shown on the
website. The reason for this lies in the API method that NEO Planner uses to access the Scout's data.
Scout calculates the positions of the NEOCP objects on the website in a noticeable amount of time by averaging thousands of orbit calculations.
NEO Planner can compensate for this performance disadvantage by calling the API interface with a request of 30 orbits.
This results in slight deviations from the display on the Scout website, which is rather insignificant in practice.
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Altitude
The altitude corresponds to the height of the object above the horizon at the time of the displayed observation time.
NEO Planner schedules objects according to the CCD/CMOS parameters, regardless of altitude.
This means that objects can also appear in the Revise screen with the Altitude displayed in red, mostly objects at the end of the planning.
NEO Planner does not automatically intend to exclude objects below the allowed altitude, but indicates this with red color in the Altitude column in
the Revise screen. Because such objects can be quite interesting.
When calculating the number of images during the planning run, airmass and lunar sky brightness are only taken into account
if the objects are above the minimum altitude on the horizon at the time of observation.
Moon Dis Alt
The displays of the moon phase, the distance between the moon and the object in degrees and altitude of the Moon relate to the
observation time and come from Ephemeris data of JPL API's.
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Vmag and Vave
Vmag of the object, either from the MPC, JPL Horizons or JPL Scout.
Vave = Average Vmag of the last 10 observations found in the MPC Database.
Comets: Remove from the planning list if either the ephemeris Vmag or the average Vmag exceeds the maximum allowed Vmag in terms of value. NEOs: Remove from the planning list if the MPC/Horizons ephemeris Vmag exceeds the maximum allowed Vmag in terms of value. NEOCP objects: Remove from the planning list if the Scout ephemeris Vmag exceeds the maximum allowed Vmag in terms of value.
For Comets, the last observation date in the Object Information screen should always be taken into account.
If this happened more than three or four weeks ago, observation may fail.
"/min and PA
The displays for arcsec / minute (s / min) and position angle (PA) refer to the observation time and come from
Ephemeris of Scout API.
dRA and dDec
Display of the dRA and dDec proper motion of NEOCP objects to enable the proper movement in RA and Dec for direct tracking of the objects.
However, this option should only be reserved for professional observatories, because the traditional stacking method with sidereal tracking of the object
and measuring with Astrometrica or Tycho promises more success for amateurs.
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The number of images is calculated automatically by multiplying the number of groups and images / group.
If the maximum number of images specified in the parameters of the CCD/CMOS Settings
is less than the required number of images, calculated from number of images per group * number of groups, the number of images is displayed in red.
Notes on including Airmass and Lunar sky brightness in calculating the total number of images per object are also displayed:
A means: Airmass was taken into account for all objects according to Horizons API. L means: Lunar sky brightness was taken into account for all objects according to Horizons API.
Notes: Airmass A and lunar sky brightness L are only taken into account under the following conditions:
Object altitude > 0 and altitude > minimum altitude.
No. groups: (stacks)
The group value basically means how many measurements for each single object should be sent to the MPC.
After planning, you can increase this value for each object in the Revise screen if you want. To do this, press the G key on the position line.
A comprehensive description of the number of groups can be found in CCD/CMOS parameters
settings for the local sky background.
In the case of a group value of <4, the following applies:
Neo Planner uses the entered value from the settings at speeds of the object greater than 3 arcsec / minute.
At speeds less than 3 arcsec / min. the value is multiplied by 2, at speeds less than 1 arcsec / min. the value is multiplied by 3 and at speeds less than 0.1 by 5.
If the movement of the object is less than the resolution of the camera and at the same time the exposure time per group in the planning is less than the required exposure time
according to s/min, then the columns no.gr. and min./gr. displayed in
red, otherwise green.
Thus, if you want, you can achieve the required distance depending on the CCD resolution by manually increasing the groups per object
or splitting them into several positions and adjusting the groups.
The automatic splitting of positions when the maximum allowed path of the object is exceeded is described
here .
Images / group
A comprehensive description of the calculation of the images per group can be found on the
CCD/CMOS parameter settings for the sky background
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Transit LT
Transit of the object thru the Meridian in local time, if the buffer time is zero in the NO-GO settings.
Exception: Buffer time in the NO GO Area settings.
If the buffer time is greater than zero in the NO GO Area settings, 'Best LT' is displayed as the heading.
The buffer time in R.A. Hours before the meridian transit is also considered, so that there is enough time to photograph the object before the meridian transit.
When displaying the transit LT in the Revise screen, this hourly value is already subtracted from the transit time of the object.
The time is displayed in red when no highest altitude can be found during the ephemeris determination of a NEOCP object using Scout.
In this case, the last time found after 8 hours is used. This can happen with low-lying objects in the early morning.
This constellation is usually found with newly discovered comets.
Important NOTE:
Because of the one-time calculation of the transit times, it is highly recommended to enter only realistic selections for the planning of the
upcoming night session during Execute Planning. If the planning calculates objects beyond the next morning, there is a risk that the transit times will be displayed incorrectly.
The user is responsible for using the plan data displayed.
obs. time LT
Computed time of observation in local time zone.
The local observation times of the following objects can be moved forward between 0 and 600 minutes by right-clicking the position.
These changes are marked by a colored display of the observation time LT. Red means: Execute smart planning is pending, green means: rescheduled.
The observation time can also be entered manually in the format hhmm by pressing T on the position.
These manually times are marked by a colored display of the observation time LT. Red means:
Execute smart planning is pending, dark green means: rescheduled.
The following rule applies to Execute smart Planning:
If the manual time (function T)is less than the calculated time of the position, the manual time is overwritten with the calculated time.
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Hint
For NEOCP objects: If the Background NEOCP Check detects that a new provisional number has been assigned, it will be displayed in
dark purple.
For all objects: if a manual observation time was entered using the T function in Revise,
the manual time is displayed here in dark green.
If none of the above cases apply:
W = at the suggested time there is a real risk that the object will cross the meridian. W in blue means: The object is already west of the meridian at the start time of observation. W in velvet green means:
The object is still east of the meridian at the start time of observation, but will cross the meridian in the course of the observation.
In this case, you should also check the duration of observation of the object. If the object is more than an hour west of the transit time during recording,
the W indicator will be displayed in blue.
F =The object was not found on the Scout page of the JPL,
possibly a nonexistent object.
On the other hand, this can mean that the object has been kicked out of the NEOCP, either because the object has now received a provisional number
(publication in Previous NEO Confirmation Page Objects),
or the object type has changed (e.g. Main Belt asteroid) or Scout just doesn't provide any data at NEOCP.
T = The path of an object is longer than the allowed maximum length of a recording series.
The automatic splitting of positions no longer occurs at altitudes below the minimum altitude.
C = The path of the object is fully mapped in the FoV by using the center position of the track.
M = Mosaic position
S = Note for NEOCP S= satellite. Other notes may also be used on the NEOCP, these will then also be displayed. B = Note for NEOCP B will indicate a nominal orbit with a high RMS fit
(RMS > 2"), signaling a possible bad tracklet or unsuccessful orbit fit that could impact the predicted ephemeris and may require manual review.
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Maximum Distance
Maximum path of an object from the center of the image to the edge during a series of exposures. This value is always displayed here from the center of the image, regardless of
the starting position of the object.
If <Center Position> in Execute Planning is selected, the length of the
permitted object path is adapted to the start position.
Detailled informations on: CCD/CMOS Parameters
Object Trail
The path length of an object through the FoV is calculated based on the movement of the object in arcsec/min, its position angle,
the exposure times including download load times and the total number of exposures.
Detailled informations on: CCD/CMOS Parameters
Min./gr.
In column min/gr. the necessary images for a single group / stack are now displayed, according to the camera resolution and velocity
of an object in s/min.
If the movement of the object is less than the resolution of the camera and at the same time the exposure time per stack in the planning is less than the required exposure time
according to s/min, then the columns no.gr. and min./gr. displayed in
red, otherwise in green.
Thus, if you want, you can achieve the required distance depending on the CCD/CMOS resolution by manually increasing the groups per object in column
no.gr. or splitting them into several positions and adjusting the number of groups (stacks) to 1 or 2 in each line of the object.
Arc
With each updated planning, the arcs of NEO and NEOCP objects are displayed in days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m).
Airmass
When one of the checkboxes on airmass in Execute Planning is activated,
the relative airmass of the location is taken into account when calculating the number of images per group/stack.
Detailed information about airmass can be found here.
Moon SB
When observing objects and the sun is in astronomical twilight,
Horizons' Lunar Sky Brightness #48 can be taken into account when calculating the necessary number of exposures for a single measurement.
If the sun is outside astronomical twilight at the time of recording and the moon is above the horizon at the time of observation, the value
'n.a.' is displayed in red.
In this case, you should intervene manually according to experience according to the information in the 'Moon Dis Alt' column.
Depending on the phase of the moon you can see the number of groups/stacks in column 'no.gr.'
Increase this value, e.g. at quarter moon by factor 1.5, half moon by 2, three quarter moon by 3 and around the full moon by 4.
Detailed information about Lunar sky brightness be found here.
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Buttons
Reset to origin
All changes are reversed and the original planning is restored.
Object information
Displays a screen with special information about the objects such as number of previous observations,
date and observatory of the last observation, type of object, orbit element data or flyby data.
Ephemeris links
By pressing the E key in a line of an objects, you get a list
of ephemeris to the minute, which can be selected up to a period of 8 hours. There you can save the ephemeris with the SAVE button.
The button Ephemeris links then points to a website from which you can call up all the ephemeris of the planning from any PC.
NEOCP Check
The NEOCP Check function enables the planning to be updated quickly, including the current NEOCP display.
It is checked whether there are updates for individual NEOCP objects, whether these have been deleted or an publication in
Previous NEO Confirmation Page Objects took place.
If new provisional numbers are assigned, these will be determined and displayed.
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