The International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center

MPC Preparation (Info)

MPC Submission Information

For those wishing to submit astrometric observations for publication in the Minor Planet Circulars information is available on the format of astrometric observations. Observations, formatted as described therein, should be sent to obs@cfa.harvard.edu. Submissions are also accepted via curl; instructions are here. Reports for new comets should also (following the redistribution of tasks at the 2015 IAU GA) be reported to the MPC. Note that visual reports of comet discoveries should be reported via this web from.

Further technical information on Minor Planet Center submissions is available:

• Information on the ADES format is available here.
• Observation format
• Indication of observational details
• Orbit format (export)
  • The HTML pages describing the new format for import of orbital elements will be available here at some future date.
• Orbit format (import) Orbits submitted for publication in the MPCs need to be in a special format.
  • The document describing the new format for import of orbital elements will be available here at some future date.
• Indication of perturbing bodies for orbits
• Alphabetic notes for orbits
• Calculation of the orbital-uncertainty parameter, U
• Guide to Minor Body Astrometry: Notes for new or potential astrometrists
• List of orbit computers (and other codes) on the Daily Orbit Update MPECs
• Links to various technical lists
  • These lists contain low-level information generated during MPC filing operations and are not formatted for casual viewing. They are generated from files that are updated with each batch of Minor Planet Circulars and should be complete through observations processed up to the cutoff date for inclusion of the latest MPC batch.
  • Break down of amateur discoveries
  • Yearly break down of observations
  • Status of designated objects (by year and half-month)
  • Statistics on residuals from observations of minor planets, by observatory code
  • Statistics on residuals from observations of numbered minor planets, by observatory code
  • Magnitude-weighting file
  • Astrometry-weighting file
• Information on how discoverers can name their numbered discoveries.