[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by astroron

Could anyone convert this Ephemeris into the language that "The Sky 6"
Can understand please.
I have tried all sorts of combinations to no avail

JPL/HORIZONS (2012 DA14) 2013-Jan-07 02:05:03 Rec #:732120 (+COV) Soln.date: 2012-May-13_02:50:12 # obs: 188 (79 days) FK5/J2000.0 helio. ecliptic osc. elements (AU, DAYS, DEG, period=Julian yrs): EPOCH= 2456007.5 ! 2012-Mar-21.00 (CT) Residual RMS= .28422 EC= .1082356434519823 QR= .8933003245207058 TP= 2455895.355491354 OM= 147.2896474597286 W= 271.0806938513611 IN= 10.33969989795044 A= 1.001722392200821 MA= 110.2455360245707 ADIST= 1.110144459880936 PER= 1.0026 N= .9830667360000001 ANGMOM= .017115762 DAN= .98797 DDN= .9920099999999999 L= 58.3881762 B= -10.3378405 TP= 2011-Nov-29.8554914 Physical parameters (KM, SEC, rotational period in hours): GM= n.a. RAD= n.a. ROTPER= n.a. H= 24.377 G= .150 B-V= n.a. ALBEDO= n.a. STYP= n.a. ASTEROID comments: 1: soln ref.= JPL#35, OCC=4

Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Gary's way works too.

Ron, which parameters did you feed Horizons? If I use:

Current Settings
Ephemeris Type [change] :  ELEMENTS
Target Body [change] :  Asteroid        (2012 DA14)
Center [change] :  Sun (body center) [500@10]
Time Span [change] :  discrete time(s)=2013-02-15 18:00
Table Settings [change] :  defaults
Display/Output [change] :  plain text

I get something like what you pasted. The easiest part to use is the bit below. The "Symbol meaning" bit identifies what value goes in each box. You can paste them as they appear here and TheSky can handle the scientific notation. The only tricks are:

• TheSky6 calls "Argument of Perifocus" in the Minor Planets "Add" panel "Argument of Perihelion".

• The day in "Element epoch" is the day as decoded from MJD with the decimal part added - so in this case 15.25.

and I don't seem to be able to stop the editor wrapping this block without butchering it. It sort of looks like this:

$$SOE 
2456339.250000000 = A.D. 2013-Feb-15 18:00:00.0000 (CT) 
 EC= 1.119223267411774E-01 QR= 8.793252519475666E-01 IN= 1.277276690753689E+01 
 OM= 1.471236673414090E+02 W = 2.645957382478340E+02 Tp=  2456256.793500953820 
 N = 1.000359691344981E+00 MA= 8.248615793535961E+01 TA= 9.532953427349806E+01 
 A = 9.901445317512164E-01 AD= 1.100963811554866E+00 PR= 3.598705576750907E+02 
$$EOE 
Coordinate system description:    Ecliptic and Mean Equinox of Reference Epoch      Reference epoch: J2000.0 
    xy-plane: plane of the Earth's orbit at the reference epoch 
    x-axis  : out along ascending node of instantaneous plane of the Earth's 
              orbit and the Earth's mean equator at the reference epoch 
    z-axis  : perpendicular to the xy-plane in the directional (+ or -) sense 
              of Earth's north pole at the reference epoch.

Symbol meaning [1 AU=149597870.691 km, 1 day=86400.0 s]: 
    JDCT     Epoch Julian Date, Coordinate Time 
      EC     Eccentricity, e                                                    
      QR     Periapsis distance, q (AU)                                         
      IN     Inclination w.r.t xy-plane, i (degrees)                            
      OM     Longitude of Ascending Node, OMEGA, (degrees)                      
      W      Argument of Perifocus, w (degrees)                                 
      Tp     Time of periapsis (Julian day number)                              
      N      Mean motion, n (degrees/day)                                       
      MA     Mean anomaly, M (degrees)                                          
      TA     True anomaly, nu (degrees)                                         
      A      Semi-major axis, a (AU)                                            
      AD     Apoapsis distance (AU)                                             
      PR     Sidereal orbit period (day)