List members might be interested in a little project I just finished as the old year draws to a close. Last week's issue of "Science" carried notice of an online article on new Uranian rings and satellites, and I realized that a few more solar system satellites had recently received names. Some searching of the Internet found a fair amount of information on the various newly named and discovered satellites of the solar system (in addition to the Sky & Telescope website, which I peruse from time to time), and I've condensed some of this information into a handy twelve-page document that one can print on three-hole-punched paper, say, and file in a three-ring binder for easy access. The document gives the latest names, designations, orbital elements (period, semimajor axis, inclination), visual magnitudes, diameters, masses, discoverers, and discovery dates for all 160 known natural satellites of the solar system's ten planets. This took more than a week of spare time--it's not an entirely trivial exercise to locate and format sometimes conflicting information from numerous different websites into a coherent table--and there are still a few rough edges and possible typos to fix, but on the whole it's a serviceable document. Anyone who would like a copy simply drop me an email and I'll send it (please specify Word or WordPerfect). Additions, corrections, and discussion always welcome off list. I'll be keeping it up to date into the foreseeable future as new information surfaces and new discoveries occur. For those to whom I sent copies of the Satellite Situation Report and update, I have a new short update file of catalogued objects from November 14 to year's end. I'll send a copy to anyone who wants one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 01 2006 - 01:04:20 EST