Minor Planets tab (Data | Comets and Minor Planets command)

Click this tab to display a list of the minor planets that are currently in memory. Up to 1000 local minor planets can be displayed at once. If you want to display a larger number of minor planets, (limited only by the amount of computer memory), use the Extended Minor Planets tab.

Name

Lists the names of minor planets that can be viewed.

Edit

Click this button to display the Minor Planet Input dialog box. This allows you to change the orbital elements for the selected minor planets.

Add

Displays the Minor Planet Input dialog box. This allows you to add a description and the orbital elements for a minor planet.

Remove

Removes the selected minor planet.

Number of Minor Planets

Displays the number of minor planets that are currently loaded. A maximum of 1000 local minor planets can be displayed at once. See the Extended Minor Planets for displaying more than 1000 minor planets.

From the Web Group

This group box contains options that retrieve timely information directly from the World Wide Web.

Distant

Click this button to retrieve the list of distant minor planets from the IAU web site.

Critical

Click this button to retrieve the list of critical minor planets from the IAU web site. These minor planets have orbits that intersect the earth’s.

Unusual

Click this button to retrieve the list of unusual minor planets from the IAU web site.