The main comet, asteroid info sites down (now fixed)

[tornado33]

Hi
Went to update Star Atlas pro comet orbits today, no go. So I went to the relevent websites, all down, I cant believe it

The Comet Information and the International Comet Quarterly (ICQ) site is down

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/icq.html

ICQ/CBAT/MPC: Recent Comet Magnitudes at
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/icq/CometMags.html
Its down too.

I cant believe they dont have mirror sites for such inportant information

Does this mean that if someone actually discovers a new comet or asteroid, theye is now no way of reporting it?

The amazing thing is that after googling for other sources, this seems to be the only source on Earth for up to date orbital elements, so if the site is gone, thats it. Every piece of software from The Sky, megastar, Star Atlas pro, even the freeware cartes Du Ciel all use this same database. With it unaccessable theers no way of getting updates. gee someone needs to remedy that pronto.
Ive been trying since about 9 am this morning, cant bet a peep from those websites.

Scott

[Greg Bryant]

Scott,

The sites are fine from my computer.

Try again later today.

[Astroman]

Works for me also, just don't go outside and discover a new comet until the problem has been solved.

[tornado33]

Really?
Gee looks like Ive got to start looking for another ISP
Im not getting a thing, just tried again
Did a traceroute as below


Tracing route to cfa-www.cfa.harvard.edu [131.142.24.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.254
2 13 ms 12 ms 13 ms loop0.lns10.syd6.internode.on.net [150.101.197.8
8]
3 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms gi0-14.cor1.syd6.internode.on.net [150.101.197.8
1]
4 172 ms 173 ms 174 ms gi0-0.bdr1.syd7.internode.on.net [150.101.199.23
1]
5 171 ms 173 ms 171 ms pos2-1.bdr1.sjc2.internode.on.net [203.16.213.18
5]
6 205 ms 206 ms 208 ms sl-st22-sj-3-1-2.sprintlink.net [144.223.179.177
]
7 181 ms 180 ms 183 ms sl-st20-sj-8-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.29.234]
8 171 ms 172 ms 172 ms 144.232.8.42
9 203 ms 205 ms 204 ms snj-core-02.inet.qwest.net [205.171.233.29]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\scott>

[wasyoungonce]

Both sites opened up ok here:

tracert below:

Tracing route to cfa-www.cfa.harvard.edu [131.142.24.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 18 ms 16 ms 16 ms 203.24.101.23
3 17 ms 16 ms 16 ms vic-gw.aanet.com.au [203.123.72.65]
4 18 ms 18 ms 17 ms VLAN309.o3mlc76f05.optus.net.au [203.202.79.217]

5 181 ms 182 ms 181 ms g11-0.core01.lax04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.12
.221]
6 180 ms 181 ms 182 ms t3-1.ccr01.lax04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.7
4]
7 182 ms 182 ms 181 ms t4-4.mpd01.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.24
1]
8 261 ms 261 ms 261 ms t7-2.mpd01.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.19
3]
9 260 ms 262 ms 259 ms t3-3.ccr02.dfw01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.13
7]
10 261 ms 261 ms 260 ms t7-2.mpd01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.17
0]
11 263 ms 261 ms 260 ms te8-2.ccr02.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.7.1
66]
12 264 ms 264 ms 264 ms t2-3.mpd01.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.21
]
13 260 ms 261 ms 260 ms g11-0-0.core01.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.
5.21]
14 258 ms 258 ms 261 ms v102.na21.b002250-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [66
.250.14.210]
15 261 ms 261 ms 260 ms HarvardUniversity2.demarc.cogentco. com [66.250.4
.214]
16 262 ms 265 ms 263 ms coregw1-te-4-1-core.net.harvard.edu [128.103.0.1
7]
17 262 ms 264 ms 263 ms cftgw1-gi-3-3-core.net.harvard.edu [128.103.0.42
]
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * *


The rest just timed out so it's an OS problem...although I'm rather suspicious of my internet providers "transparent proxy servers" in matters like this.

[tornado33]

Ive replaced my fancy Billion Viop Router with my ancient Speedtouch home adsl modem I got from bigpond years ago, and the sites work fine. Doesnt say much for modern technology.

Now using the voip router again, changed some settings
ppoe rather then ppoa, and manually set connection from auto to G.DMT
That seems to have fixed it. Dont know why it wasnt working before. Oh well.

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Scott, you can always get the orbital elements from Seiichi Yoshida's site :) and manually put them in, i have done that before as SN's OE's are sometimes missing in action or wrong ect. ect.
I have a billion and 2.5 years later still working nicely except i cant turn it off using on/off switch is as kaput long time ago lol, have to unplug at wall/board

[tornado33]

Thanks
Interestingly a few people on the whirlpool forums report not being able to access www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/icq.html when I put up a post asking if it can be accessed. Most can but a few cannot.
After changing some of the settings it now works. Most odd.
Scott

[[1ponders]]

Have you guys had success updating the info on Comet 17P/Holme? I have updated my SN asteroids and comets a couple of times and it is still showing the comet as only around mag 16 :screwy:

[tornado33]

Yes though I can now update the actual orbit, they havent updated the actual magnitude, so yes it is still being indicated as quite faint.
Scott

[fringe_dweller]

Paul,
they'll never adjust brightness in OE's for outbursts - and projected brighness/faintness mag numbers for comets are never to be taken very seriously in Planetarium programs or ephemerides - ever :) its just a rough indicator normally, you have visit places like here, or current obs/comet pages/groups for that - or just look at them visually yourself failing that i guess :)

one to go!

[gary]

Hi Scott,

When going to PPOA from PPOE, usually the default MTU Size parameter gets changed.

You could possibly also have solved it by changing the MTU Size parameter.
If it is set to something like 1500, try setting it to something lower like 1452.
Other values to try include 1492, 1472, 1468. Experiment until you find one
that works. Contrary to what you might think, having the MTU set larger is
not always better.

Specifically, having the MTU set too large can result in problems with fragmented messages,
appearing to deny you access to some parts of the net. These problems aren't
easily diagnosed without a network analyzer and studying the request packets
and responses.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Mt. Kuring-Gai