Ephemeris Interpolator

version 1.3.46 Rev 05Sep2023

Ephemeris Interpolator calculates the position, apparent speed and direction of motion of a moving object at a given time from an ephemeris using cubic interpolation.

Its intended use is to provide accurate speed and direction information quickly and easily during track & stack operations.

Ephemerides can be downloaded automatically via the Minor Planet Center's MPES and NEOCP services, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Scout and Horizons services and the Catalina Sky Survey's NEOFixer service.

Semi-automatic integration with Find_Orb allows ephemerides generated in Find_Orb to be imported with a single mouse click.

Ephemerides can also be easily copy and pasted in from other sources.

Speed and direction of motion information can be automatically transferred into Astrometrica when using its track & stack functionality.

See below for a more comprehensive list of functionality and links to further information:

• Download ephemerides using the MPC's MPES and NEOCP services. See Retrieve MPES ephemeris and Retrieve NEOCP ephemeris
• Download ephemerides using the JPL CNEOS Scout service. See Retrieve Scout ephemeris for NEOCP object.
• Download ephemerides using the JPL Horizons service. See Retrieve Horizons ephemeris and Horizons ephemerides.
• Download ephemerides using the Catalina Sky Survey's NEOFixer service. See Retrieve NEOFixer ephemerides.
• Import ephemerides locally generated by Find_Orb. See Add last ephemeris generated in Find_Orb.
• Manually import ephemerides from other sources. See Add an ephemeris manually.
• Calculate RA, Dec, Speed and P.A.° using a 3rd order interpolation method. See Interpolation.
• Display a small detachable window or 'Pad' above other windows, for convenience when working with other software such as Astrometrica. See Pad.
• Drag and drop FITs files from Astrometrica to the Pad to perform Track & Stack operations in Astrometrica. See Stack images by drag and drop.
• Speed and P.A.° motion details can be automatically transferred to Astrometrica during Track & Stack operations. See Paste speed and P.A.° to Astrometrica.
• RA and Dec position information can be automatically transferred to Astrometrica "Coordinates" window. See Paste RA and Dec to Astrometrica.
• Calculate when a moving object will reach a user specified value of RA or Dec. See Calculate time when RA or Dec reaches ...
• Retrieve raw astrometry from the MPC (for permanently numbered and provisionally designated objects, NEOCP and PCCP objects). See Copy astrometry from MPC to clipboard.
• Display the calculated position in the desktop application GoogleSky. See Display Position in Google Sky.
• Common ephemeris formats are recognised from the MPC, JPL Horizons and Scout, Find_Orb, NEODyS, NEOFixer and artificial satellite ephemerides (B. Gray)
• Other ephemeris formats can be added using the built-in Ephemeris Format editor. See Ephemeris Format Editor.
• New ephemeris formats configured centrally can be made available for automatic downloading from the internet. See Import ephemeris formats.

Ephemeris Interpolator has been tested to integrate successfully with Astrometrica versions 4.11.1.442 and 4.12.0.448 (ADES beta version), Find_Orb (version Oct 31 2021) and Google Earth Pro (version 7.3.4.8248 (64-bit)).

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