Redaction of NEOCP observations

(Update) MPC no longer requires this sort of redaction. I've been asked by some observers to redact data on artificial satellites, and you'll see more extensive redaction on some older pseudo-MPECs. But the following is of historical interest now.


     Gehre47  C1943 10 22;9Astrometry79N,e!@cRo7l\DTNg(we^p^-EW[hhP[Yi0?Te_q=291
     Gehre47  C1943 10 22.cdjasN!p:_@Rl?/M.wXredacted;C0G-OVMhMjwj.AR'n(dtA+L291
     Gehre47  C1943 10 223J\:23r0Dt=M*j15mwhTX]4:!/[`[Heqcw+5a)clickcY0m#%ls[291
     Gehre47 KC1943 10 23j5y#=2xaHGsdWXS?a=xLd!RiHL$8Bm:Aq1u)06+1%Ot](9yEkKdFJ95
     Gehre47 KC1943 10 23#Sn)Xhere`KKUFvfBZP2e;ODj#\sp[ra`\a=j0GJL'YM$FI^P[#lJ95
     Gehre47 KC1943 10 23dH6g*/]?\x%:BbJCdNJF.wJfor.b^[e*FgAgq*Kjf#o+=lGAi2p9J95
     Gehre47 KC1943 10 23XXj\fjDJc/QPmZrGGvp,mbSi,?9yQqj3]41anOptexplanationZJ95

The Minor Planet Center requests that observational data provided on the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page (NEOCP) not be re-distributed. Eventually, if the object is confirmed and receives an official designation, the data is released and can be distributed, providing that proper credit is given to MPC and the observers. But until then, as NEOCP itself says,

...observations and orbits of objects accessible via [NEOCP] are made available only for your personal use. They are not to be promulgated via any medium.

Therefore, NEOCP data in pseudo-MPECs is shown "redacted" : the observation time, position, and magnitude are overwritten with pseudo-random characters and then masked with a black bar. You can look on NEOCP itself and get the data, if the object is still there.

The actual data is usually available on NEOCP, until that object is either MPECed or removed. Some observers want any observations they make of artificial objects to be redacted. I've yet to encounter an observer who objected to data for natural objects being posted on pseudo-MPECs. But I assume MPC has (or did) encounter somebody who just flat-out didn't want their observations to be re-distributed. And it's not a difficult request to honor.

Some observers have kindly given permission for their NEOCP observations to be shown unredacted. (You can see the list of obscodes that have given permission in the initial settings file environ.dat that is distributed with Find_Orb. Look for the word GREENLIT.) All other NEOCP data is redacted.

If you're an observer who would like your observations to appear unredacted, please e-mail me at p‮ôç.ötulpťcéjôřp@otúl‬m (after removing the diacritical marks added to confuse spambots.)