The service can be used as a Web service and easily integrated into your own software (cf. SkyBoT main page). We propose some examples of client programs for that. The service can also be used through a Web form which allows to submit resolver or cone-search requests. This page describes how to fill in some of the input parameters of the service.

The general syntaxe of Sso names in SkyBoT is the following:

[<prefix>:][%|_]<nom>[%|_]

• ' a ' to point out an asteroid
• ' p ' to point out a planet
• ' s ' to point out a natural satellite
• ' c ' to point out a comet

and where <name> is the official number or name, or the provisional designation of the Sso. If no prefix is used, then the SkyBoT resolver seeks the Sso among all the known bodies in the limit of 100 answers. The use of the prefix is therefore helpfull to restrict the research.

The pattern of the <name> of the Sso can be completed by the following two leading or trailing wildcard character: % to match any number of characters, even zero character, or _ to match exactly one character. For example, io% points out all Sso which name starts by "io"; %ley points out all Sso which name ends by "ley".

Restriction: the names of asteroids and comets must be true to the original names used in ASTORB and COMETPRO databases. If not, they could not be recognized. For the natural satellites, only the ones for which an ephemeris is available are recognized.

• m%
• %halley%
• a:Pallas
• a:1999 TC3_
• p:mars
• s:J-III
• c:P/Borrely
• c:%10%

The epoch must be formatted as a textual english date (in accordance with the GNU syntax of dates), as a julian day or as an ISO 8601 date.

• now
• 2006-01-27T1:53:34
• 2453762.529467592
• 10 September 2000
• +1 day
• +1 week 2 days 4 hours 2 seconds
• next Thursday
• last Monday

The epoch must be expressed in the UTC timescale. The time span of ephemeris covers by SkyBoT is given by the method status of the SkyBoT Web service (covered epoch).

Restriction: The seconds must be an integer number into the ISO 8601 format. For a time resolution better than a second, please use the julian day.

Tolerance: le character 'T' of the ISO 8601 format can be omitted.

The coordinates must be formatted as decimal or sexagesimal numbers (with the character space or ':' to separate values in the later). The right ascension and the declination must be separated by a space character, and the degrees of the declination must be signed.

In the Web form, the field Target can also be used to defined the FOV centre by the number or name or provisional designation of a Sso (c.f. syntax in the previous paragraph). In that case, the name will be automatically resolved, or specifically resolved by hitting the "Resolve target" button.

• 9.206210129857 -5.190943032122
• 9:54:40.81 +16:23:1.7
• 9 54 40.81 +16 23 1.7
• mars
• a:Pallas
• s:J-III
• c:sP/Borrely

Examples:

• 1200x900
• 600

Restriction:The size of the FOV must not exceed 30°.

For an extra-terrestrial observer, use one of the following codes recognized by SkyBoT:

kepler | @-227

for an observer located onboard the Kepler/K2 spacecraft. Period of validity of the orbit: 2009-03-07T06:22:56 -- 2018-12-31T23:58:50

rosetta | @-226

for an observer located onboard the Rosetta spacecraft. Period of validity of the orbit: 2004-03-02T09:25:18 -- 2014-08-04T01:15:00

tess | @tess

for an observer located onboard the TESS spacecraft. Period of validity of the orbit: 2018-05-31T12:00:00.00 -- 2028-06-07 12:00:00 (based on 25 yr mission orbit kernel)

l2 | earth@l2

for an observer located at the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system (L2).

Sources of kernels:

• Kepler/K2: http://archive.stsci.edu/missions/k2/spice
• Rosetta: ftp://ssols01.esac.esa.int/pub/data/SPICE/ROSETTA/kernels/

The uncertainty of the positions of asteroids is computed from the values of the CEU (absolute value of the 1-sigma RMS) and its rate of change given by the ASTORB database. The uncertainty of the positions of planets and natural satellites is fixed to the arbitrary value 0".01, and 0".5 for comets, which is not representative of the real uncertainties for these Sso.

• use the SkyBoT services through a VO-compliant software which implements them, such as Aladin, Audela, the WCS Tools, the Astrogrid VODesktop, or the Maxim DL 5 plugin
• use the SkyBoT query forms available on the VO-IMCCE Web site
• implement yourself the SkyBoT Web service methods in your own software (see client templates) or call the HTTP request on the command line interface using non-interactive file transfert programs such as wget or curl (see the how to consume paragraph of each SkyBoT method).

• the target could be an unknown asteroid ro comet
• the target could be a newly discovered object but not yet insered in the SkyBoT database
• the target could be an unknown natural or artificial satellite
• it could append that the error on the predicted position of the asteroid is too high to match the target that is (suspected to be) in the field of view

The ephemerides of the planets are computed from the INPOP06 (IMCCE) planetary theory. The ephemerides of the natural satellites are computed from various peculiar planetary solutions.

The ephemerides of the asteroids and comets are computed by numerical integration of the perturbated problem of the 9 bodies (post-newtonian approximation). The dynamical properties of the asteroids are taken in the ASTORB database of the Lowell Observatory, and from the COMETPRO database of the IMCCE.

The hardware architecture of SkyBoT permits a high level of availability of the service during the update phase. The access to the ephemerides of the newly discovered asteroids and comets can be, at the maximum, 48 hours after the publication of their orbital elements in the corresponding database.