Near-real-time alerts for new bright objects on the NEOCP and PCCP lists. While idle, the service checks every minute and filters e-mail alerts by location, visibility and attainable limiting magnitude.
Preface
I set up this private NEOCP/PCCP alert system because I sometimes learned too late about newly published objects that I could still have observed.
A computer runs day and night. Whenever no full evaluation is active, it checks NEOCP and PCCP once per minute. A completed evaluation is followed immediately by another check. Under normal conditions, a new list entry is therefore detected within about one minute.
The subsequent evaluation downloads observations, calculates the orbit and ephemeris, and decides which recipients qualify. Alert calculation and delivery take priority; archive, table and upload maintenance follows afterwards. Unchanged orbit elements and previously parsed observation files are reused. A running evaluation is completed and is not interrupted by another one-minute check.
RSS/XML, JSON and Discord use the general default selection with station 500 and 20.0 mag. E-mail subscriptions can additionally use a personal station and limiting magnitude.
Motivation
The service makes new potentially observable objects easier to spot. It combines the current MPC lists, downloaded observations, and local Find_Orb working values into reviewable tables.
This is a private supplemental service and not an official Minor Planet Center service. Scientific or operational decisions should always use the original sources and ephemerides.
Useful with smaller telescopes
The limiting magnitude selects objects your instrument can reach. A smaller number is more restrictive: with 18.0 mag, an e-mail is created only if the object becomes at least magnitude 18.0 in the personal 48-hour ephemeris. The 20.0 mag default includes correspondingly fainter objects.
For a topocentric station, the mail includes only times when the object is at or above the horizon and the Sun is at or below −6 degrees. If no qualifying ephemeris row exists, that recipient receives no mail.
Observers without their own MPC station code may choose an existing nearby code for alert calculation. The station finder derives one from latitude and longitude. A closer substitute gives a better horizon and topocentric approximation, especially for nearby objects.
Never report your own astrometry to the Minor Planet Center under somebody else's station code. Guidance on obtaining a code and using the rover format is provided in the station finder.
Registration
E-mail notifications are enabled on request. The registration mail must be sent from the exact address that should receive later alerts.
Only e-mail subscriptions can additionally include an MPC station code and a personal limiting magnitude. If omitted, station 500 and 20.0 mag are used. RSS/XML, JSON and Discord remain general feeds with these defaults.
The station controls the location for the Alert-MPEC visibility check. The limiting magnitude controls how faint an object may be for an alert mail; the default is 20.0 mag. To change the station or limiting magnitude later, send another mail from the subscribed address with the new values.
Choose station and magnitude Registration mail with defaults
RSS, Mail And Discord
RSS/XML and JSON provide the current bright objects from the general default selection. E-mail can additionally be filtered by personal station and limiting magnitude; Discord remains a general channel.
Use the Discord invite to join MPC NEO Alert on Discord and receive the current warnings directly in the Discord channel.
Tables
Compact orbit elements, full orbit elements, and observations are available as separate pages.