Program identify.py takes care of automatic identification of asteroids on the basis of measurements stored in MPC
format. It reads input file line by line and makes action on the
basis of the line length: lines which have less than 80 characters
are simply copied to the standard output while lines of length 80 are considered
measurements of asteroids. The program takes time of measurement,
right ascension and declination values from each line and checks whether
any asteroid was close to this position. The exact amount how close
is defined by the user when the program is called. If the match is
not found, the program will automatically generate a temporary designation
from the user defined prefix and a number. First apperance of an
unknown object is marked by a discovery asterisk. Unidentified measurements
which are within some distance (default two arc minutes) of a previously
measured new object inherit its designation. This way the identity
of the same object is preserved, provided that the distance it travels
from measurement to measurement does not exceed the specified limit.
This program requires Python 1.5.1 or later. People who don't know about Python can learn about it at the Python home page. Calling syntax is:
python identify.py [options] server_address id input_file distance magnitude
Possible options are:
-p prefix
Prefix is a two-letter code. Default code is TT.
-n num
Num is a number which begins the sequence of provisional designations. Default value is 1.
-d distance
Distance is expressed in arc minutes. This is the distance within which an unidentified object is matched to a previously found unidentified object. The default value is 2 arc seconds. This distance should be adjusted according to the observing strategy and physical characterics of images suchh as pixel size.
Parameters:
Server_address and id are required by the asteroid_server . Input file contains measurement in MPC format. Distance is the distance between the measured position and asteroid position from the database below which the match is considered to be found. It is expressed in arc minutes. Note that the typical distances from numbered and other multi-opposition asteroids will be of order of 1 arc second. Magnitude of the reported asteroids can be limited by the last parameter. It has sense to set this parameter to about one magnitude below the limiting magnitude of the images we are processing.
Example:
Assume input file id_example.mail
COD 106
OBS H. Mikuz, B. Dintinjana, J. Skvarc
TEL ACIT, 20-cm, f/2.1 Baker-Schmidt + CCD
NET GSC 1.1
ACK Fitsblink 2.2 report generated on Wed Dec 23 09:45:14 1998
C1998 12 23.10188 10 58 23.41 +07 34 50.4 106
C1998 12 23.12237 10 58 24.68 +07 34 59.6 106
C1998 12 23.10554 10 57 23.49 +05 28 47.2 106
C1998 12 23.12615 10 57 24.49 +05 28 39.3 106
C1998 12 23.17780 12 46 18.27 +05 38 26.6 106
C1998 12 23.19795 12 46 19.48 +05 38 26.1 106
C1998 12 23.17780 12 43 38.11 +05 12 14.5 106
C1998 12 23.19795 12 43 38.97 +05 12 09.4 106
C1998 12 23.15113 12 12 04.93 +03 41 21.9 106
C1998 12 23.17242 12 12 05.99 +03 41 18.2 106
C1998 12 22.87910 05 40 29.32 +18 53 27.3 106
C1998 12 22.90972 05 40 27.86 +18 53 27.3 106
C1998 12 22.89575 06 12 57.08 +18 32 40.0 106
C1998 12 22.92439 06 12 54.93 +18 32 36.9 106
C1998 12 22.89613 06 20 14.08 +18 49 28.1 106
C1998 12 22.92482 06 20 12.20 +18 49 23.7 106
C1999 01 19.88845 08 27 46.24 +33 16 32.8 14.8 106
C1999 01 19.92899 08 27 43.09 +33 16 21.7 106
C1999 01 19.96321 08 27 40.49 +33 16 13.0 106
Then apply identify.py to it:
python identify.py -p CV -n 5 127.0.0.1 Jure id_example.mail 1 18
and see the result:
COD 106
OBS H. Mikuz, B. Dintinjana, J. Skvarc
TEL ACIT, 20-cm, f/2.1 Baker-Schmidt + CCD
NET GSC 1.1
ACK Fitsblink 2.2 report generated on Wed Dec 23 09:45:14 1998
00502 C1998 12 23.10188 10 58 23.41 +07 34 50.4 106
00502 C1998 12 23.12237 10 58 24.68 +07 34 59.6 106
00291 C1998 12 23.10554 10 57 23.49 +05 28 47.2 106
00291 C1998 12 23.12615 10 57 24.49 +05 28 39.3 106
00888 C1998 12 23.17780 12 46 18.27 +05 38 26.6 106
00888 C1998 12 23.19795 12 46 19.48 +05 38 26.1 106
00519 C1998 12 23.17780 12 43 38.11 +05 12 14.5 106
00519 C1998 12 23.19795 12 43 38.97 +05 12 09.4 106
00213 C1998 12 23.15113 12 12 04.93 +03 41 21.9 106
00213 C1998 12 23.17242 12 12 05.99 +03 41 18.2 106
00065 C1998 12 22.87910 05 40 29.32 +18 53 27.3 106
00065 C1998 12 22.90972 05 40 27.86 +18 53 27.3 106
01110 C1998 12 22.89575 06 12 57.08 +18 32 40.0 106
01110 C1998 12 22.92439 06 12 54.93 +18 32 36.9 106
00322 C1998 12 22.89613 06 20 14.08 +18 49 28.1 106
00322 C1998 12 22.92482 06 20 12.20 +18 49 23.7 106
J99B02B C1999 01 19.88845 08 27 46.24 +33 16 32.8 14.8 106
J99B02B C1999 01 19.92899 08 27 43.09 +33 16 21.7 106
J99B02B C1999 01 19.96321 08 27 40.49 +33 16 13.0 106
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