How to set up the Comet/Asteroid Pre-guiding in OpticTracker?
How to set up the Comet/Asteroid Pre-guiding in OpticTracker?
To use OpticTracker's Comet/Asteroid pre-guiding feature,
(1)Go to www.optictracker.com and scroll down to "Other resources." Click on "Orbit Elements of Minor Planets and Comets". Find the orbit data for the object in which you are interested. For example, here is the orbit data for Comet ISON:
C/2012 S1 (ISON),h,11/28.7774/2013,61.9311,295.7250,345.5170,1.000004,0.012494,2000,7.0,3.2
(2)Paste this exact line into "catalog.txt" under your OpticTracker installation directory. You can paste multiple orbit elements in that file for multiple objects, but you need to make sure that there is only one orbit element per line.
(3)Run OpticTracker, and click "Control" tab on your nav-bar. You should now see the comet under the name "C/2012 S1 (ISON)" in your target list.
(4)You can then click on the comet, and OpticTracker will slew your telescope towards the comet.
Please note that OpticTracker's comet/asteroid orbit pre-guiding does NOT take into account the gravitational pull of celestial bodies other than the sun. Therefore it is only accurate within a reasonable amount of time while the orbit is not disturbed by the gravitational field of other planets. For example OpticTracker's orbit calculation will NOT be suitable for observing asteroid 2012 DA14 when it flies by earth on February 15 2013, since its orbit will be altered significantly by the earth's gravity.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013