Quote:
Originally Posted by nightstalker
Great persistance guys 
Is there a family link to this one gary .. or are you quite an active old gent for your 127 years 
Can my argo unit identify comets .. as It dosn't at the moment. |
August Kopff was a distant relative and was the Director at the Konigstuhl Observatory
at the University of Heidelberg. He was a protege of Max Wolf at Heildelberg
and later was a mentor to Walter Fricke. Fricke in turn became Director of the
observatory when Kopff retired in late 1954.
Kopff discovered a large number of asteroids and comets and later went onto
collaborate with Fricke on what is known as the Forth Fundamental Catalog (FK4).
This later evolved into FK5 and this was the standard celestial reference frame
up until 1988. A new version called FK6 came out in 2000. Curiously enough,
when initially working on Argo Navis, I had reason to go to the University library
and study the opening chapters of FK5.
Kopff corresponded with Einstein on relatively as part of the FK work.
In the late 80's and 90's, NASA planned a a mission called Comet Rendezvous
Asteroid Flyby (CRAF) which was meant to rendezvous with 22P Kopff and fly
alongside it for three years. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_R...Asteroid_Flyby
Unfortunately the mission was canceled.
August Kopff passed away in 1960.
There is also a Kopff Crater on the far side of the Moon and a Kopff Rille near the
crater both named after him.
When you load comet orbital elements into your Argo Navis, a COMETS
catalog appears underneath MODE CATALOG. Your unit is capable of
doing it. Grab a copy of the User Manual from here -
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com..../argoman10.pdf
See pp 160-167 on how to obtain comet orbital elements from the Minor
Planet Center and how to use the Argonaut software utility to load them into
your unit. Since Argo Navis has a lithium coin cell battery backed time of
day clock and a multitasking operating system, it continually computes the
positions of comets in the background. What is neat about this is the
position of the comet will not only be accurate from one day to the next,
but from each minute to the next.
I am sure August Kopff and Max Wolf would have found this capability
handy to have back in 1906.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Phone +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au
