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Cometary designations are not fully supported.
Cometary designations are not fully supported:
In [22]: Names.to_packed("73P")
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TargetNameParseError Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[22], line 1
----> 1 Names.to_packed("73P")
File /disks/data0/astro/Projects/sbpy/sbpy/data/names.py:194, in Names.to_packed(s)
190 raise TargetNameParseError(
191 ('{} cannot be turned into a '
192 'packed number or designation').format(s))
193 else:
--> 194 raise TargetNameParseError(
195 ('{} cannot be turned into a '
196 'packed number or designation').format(s))
TargetNameParseError: 73P cannot be turned into a packed number or designation
In [23]: Names.to_packed("P/2004 A1")
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TargetNameParseError Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[23], line 1
----> 1 Names.to_packed("P/2004 A1")
File /disks/data0/astro/Projects/sbpy/sbpy/data/names.py:194, in Names.to_packed(s)
190 raise TargetNameParseError(
191 ('{} cannot be turned into a '
192 'packed number or designation').format(s))
193 else:
--> 194 raise TargetNameParseError(
195 ('{} cannot be turned into a '
196 'packed number or designation').format(s))
TargetNameParseError: P/2004 A1 cannot be turned into a packed number or designation
In [24]: Names.to_packed("C/2013 US10")
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TargetNameParseError Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[24], line 1
----> 1 Names.to_packed("C/2013 US10")
File /disks/data0/astro/Projects/sbpy/sbpy/data/names.py:194, in Names.to_packed(s)
190 raise TargetNameParseError(
191 ('{} cannot be turned into a '
192 'packed number or designation').format(s))
193 else:
--> 194 raise TargetNameParseError(
195 ('{} cannot be turned into a '
196 'packed number or designation').format(s))
TargetNameParseError: C/2013 US10 cannot be turned into a packed number or designation
These examples should use the 12-character format at:
https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/PackedDes.html
Take care to account for two characters in a comet fragment designation, at least for numbered periodic comets. The MPC's comet orbit table file packs 73P-BA into "0073P ba":
https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPCORB/CometEls.txt
However, the packed format description doesn't account for two-character fragment specifiers, and following the 73P rule (fragment in columns 11 and 12) will not work for a provisional designation, which needs to use the 11th character. For this latter case, should we raise an error or make it a 13-character string and raise a warning?