IAU: Minor Planet Center

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, under the auspices of Commission 20 of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and is a nonprofit organization, with principal funding coming from subscriptions to the various services offered by the Center. The MPC is responsible for the efficient collection, (computation,) checking and dissemination of astrometric observations and orbits for minor planets and comets, via the Minor Planet Circulars (issued monthly) and the Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (issued as necessary).

MPC publications and services.
- How do I report material to the MPC? Notes and technical details.
- Subscription information.
- On-line MPECs.
- Web access to the computer services.
Services for Observers
- The NEO Page.
  - The Spaceguard Foundation (U.S. mirror).
  - Date of Last Observation of NEOs not seen in a while. Now enhanced to give easy access to ephemerides. [Enhanced 2000 Nov. 27]
  - Lists of bright and faint recovery opportunities for old one-opposition objects.
- The NEO Confirmation Page
  - The NEO Confirmation Page (in R.A. order)
  - NEA candidate last added/updated (or page modified) on June 3.62 UT.
  - There are four NEA candidates in need of confirmation at the present time.
- Dates of Last Observation of Distant Objects
  - An MPES-aware listing of the dates of last observation of Centaurs, TNOs and SDOs.
- Sky coverage
  - See which parts of the sky have been searched recently and add your own coverage information.
- MPC Orbit Database
  - The MPC Orbit Database (MPCORB) is available for downloading from the anon-ftp link above. Download either the complete file or daily updates.
  - Note that the security features used in this ftp server require that your machine be found in a "reverse DNS lookup" in order to access this site. A number of ISPs do not properly DNS-register their IP addresses: attempts at access from such ISPs will fail. You should complain to your ISP if your machine cannot access this ftp server.
  - Mirror sites of the MPCORB datafiles are available as follows:
    - Czech Astronomical Society ftp server, Czech Republic
- Minor Planet Ephemeris Service
  - Generate current ephemerides for an arbitrary list of (up to 30) minor planets.
  - Generate an HTML page that you can put on your own web site to encourage others to follow-up your discoveries.
    - A collection of links to follow-up pages
- New Object Ephemeris Generator
  - Generate ephemerides for "new" discoveries before assignment of official provisional designations.
- MPChecker
  - Check possible new minor planet suspects for known objects.
  - The old OBSPLANNER service has now been incorporated into MPChecker.
- Guide to Minor Body Astrometry Notes for new or potential astrometric observers [Updated 2002 May 28]
- On-line access to the observation summary pages from each batch of MPCs.
- Ephemerides and orbital elements for comets, NEOs, distant objects and bright minor planets.
Astronomical headlines from recent circulars.
- Press Information Sheets [Updated 2000 July 21]
Various lists and plots.
- Look here for all sorts of tabulations and plots, including NEO tables.
Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.
- List of new features on these pages.
- Details on stellar occultations by minor planets from IOTA.
- Links to other IAU-related sites are now accessible from the International Astronomical Union's website.
Credits (and awards) and a user-feedback form.

SAO CBAT ICQ