Description

This package contains functions for calculating planets, minor-bodies and stars conjunctions and occultations.

Functions

This package contains many functions. However, some of these functions are old and were not tested for some time. Here we document only the most recently tested functions:

• celestial.conjunctions.allFunList - Functions and Classes list for the celestial.conjunctions package
• celestial.conjunctions.conjunctionsSearchStarMP - Search for conjunctions/occultations of minor planets and GAIA stars
• celestial.conjunctions.conjunctionsStars - Search for conjunctions between a Solar system object and GAIA stars.
• celestial.conjunctions.readOccIOTA - Read IOTA we-page asteroid occultation path into matlab

Functions that were not tested recently:

• celestial.conjunctions.planet_obj_conj - Calculate planet-object conjunctions/occultations,
• celestial.conjunctions.plants_object_conjunctions - Local circumstances for conjunctions of planets with a given object
• celestial.conjunctions.search_conj - Celestial conjunctions between moving objects
• celestial.conjunctions.search_conj_sm - Celestial conjunctions on between moving and stationary objects
• celestial.conjunctions.star_conjunctions - Calculate conjunctions between stars given their proper motion.
• celestial.conjunctions.star_conjunctions_montecarlo - SHORT DESCRIPTION HERE

Examples:

The celestial.conjunctions.conjunctionsStars and celestial.conjunctions.conjunctionsSearchStarMP can be used to generate a list of conjunction/occultation events between minor planets and stars. The program uses a local copy of the GAIA-DR3 catalog in catsHTM format, and the minor planets ephemerides generated by JPL horizons using the celestial.SolarSys.jpl_horizons function.

% generate ephem for a single minir planet:
[EphemCat]=celestial.SolarSys.jpl_horizons('ObjectInd','2060', 'StartJD',[1 9 2022],'StopJD', [31 12 2023], 'StepSize',3,'StepSizeUnits','h');
% search for conjunctions:
Result = celestial.conjunctions.conjunctionsStars(EphemCat);

or to search for multiple minor planets:

% search for conjunctions between numbered minor planets
% with Distance range and Hmag range specified in the default arguments
% Default observer position is [35(deg), 32(deg) 0.415(km)]
[Result, Table] = celestial.conjunctions.conjunctionsSearchStarMP('ElementsIndex',1, 'StartDate',[1 1 2024], 'EndDate',[1 2 2024]);