Asteroid Database: Find Objects with RA, Dec & Julian Date

[big man]

Hi guys,

Do any of you know where I can find an asteroid database. I have sky coordinates (RA and Dec) and Julian date and I want to search to see if there are any asteroids around the provided coordinates at the given date.

I guess a better question would be if there is actually a database like that around at all?

I'm just asking if any of you know of something like this off hand, but if you don't then the only solutions is to just keep looking :).

 

[D H]

Try http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/. They have a small body search engine, http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbfind.cgi. If this doesn't suffice, you might have to write a program find asteroids near your coordinates after collecting the asteroid ephemerides.

 

[big man]

Excellent! That seems to do what I want it to do. Although I don't relly understand why you would need to enter in a location because the RA and Dec are independent of observer location aren't they?

Thanks for the link!

 

[D H]

I can think of two reasons:

• To make a pedantic correction for the offset from the center of the Earth to the observer location.
• The information is needed for one of the search options (zenith angle). Always asking for the observer location ensures the needed data are present when the user searches by zenith angle.

 

[stewartcs]

Here is another list if you need it...it's not a database but has lots of info...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids

 

[big man]

haha I can't believe I didn't see the zenith search option. It's going to take some time to complete my search :(.

Thanks again guys!