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What Is The Maximum Number Of Asteroids Displayed At One Time? (Answer: Choose 5000 Of The Available 750,000)

Dear all,

I plan to use Sky Safari 6 Professional (IOS) for a lecture on asteroid mining to provide some astronomical background. My expertise actually is materials science and not astronomy. I would like to know whether really all presently known asteroids are contained in Sky Safari 6 Professional. I already reduced the magnitude limit to infinity, but I guess there should be many more NEOs and asteroids in the main belt. Where is the limit (magnitude, size?), and is there a chance to really visualize all of them?

Thank you very much, and best regards
Jan

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8 comments

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    Bill Tschumy

    We should have around 746,410 asteroid in the Pro database.  I believe this should be close to everything in the Minor Planet Center database.

    Let me check with Tim to see is there is some reason all would not be drawn with an unlimited magnitude.

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    Jan Frenzel

    Dear Bill,

    thank you very much. Just to let you know, I just tried to check the number of asteroids in the observation planner. In case I do not apply any restrictions and only select "asteroids", I get a total number of 10000 hits. I also downloaded the last database update. No change.

    Best regards

    Jan

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    Bill Tschumy

    Our search results are restricted to 10,000 objects on iOS (2,000 on Android).  That is why you only got 10,000 returned.

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    Jan Frenzel

    Ah... I see. But in the normal visualization mode, one should see... all?

    If I'd estimate the number of asteroids in the main belt (at unlimited magnitude), I would guess there are just a few thousand displayed (just a rough estimate), but for sure, never several 100.000 objects as should be in the data base.

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    Bill Tschumy

    I suspect we can't draw 750,000 asteroids without the user interface grinding to a halt.  We limit the star magnitudes at wide fields of view for just that reason.  I am still waiting to hear back from Tim on what criteria is used.

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    Keiron Smith

    Hi Jan, 

    With Starry Night, and a very fast computer, it is possible to simulate max 99,999 asteroids.  We have KB article explaining how here:

    https://support.simulationcurriculum.com/hc/en-us/articles/231535187-SN7-How-to-add-every-single-known-asteroid-to-the-database-Mac-OSX-

    You can do it for Starry Night on Windows as well.

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    Bill Tschumy

    I talked to Tim.  He says we draw up to 5000 of the brightest asteroids.  Our code is very efficient but mobile processors are not as fast as desktop ones.  We have to limit the number or you device will grind to a halt.

    That said, you can display any of the 750,000 asteroids by selecting them (or having them highlighted in a list).  We always draw the selected object.

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    Jan Frenzel

    H. I understand. But maybe in the future, you could raise that limit (e.g. for some specific devices?). I think iPad pro and the new Iphones are pretty fast?

    All the best,

    Jan

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