User:Rfassbind/List of minor planet observatories

Observations of minor planets as well as comets and natural satellites of the Solar System are made by astronomical observatories all over the world and reported the the Minor Planet Center (MPC), a service of the International Astronomical Union. The MPC data base contains more than than 200 millions observations submitted by these registered observatories. An astrometric record consist of the position, brightness and timestamp of an observed object, besides additional information. The data base contains more than 200 millions records gathered over a period of more than 200 years.

The MPC assigns for each observatory a 3-digit observatory code, also known as MPC or IAU codes. The code is in the range 000 to Z99 and serves as a unique identifier for the reported observations. MPC's periodically published and revised "List Of Observatory Codes". Over time, the number of astronomical observatories worldwide has been growing constantly. As of October 2018, this list contains 2095 observatory codes.

Observational record
An astrometric observational record includes the position, timestamp, and absolute brightness of an observed object. Typically, an observatory observes an objects at least three times within a short timespan during the same night. The records are then reported together with the individual code of the observatory to the Minor Planet Center. These are then compared to MPC's internal database and a new provisional designation is assigned if no match is found. The observational records are published by the MPC on a weekly basis. Summaries are published in the Minor Planet Circulars several times a year.

Examples
The first observational record for the Jupiter trojan published on the Minor Planet Center's corresponding object page.21271

Astrometric data base
MPC's astrometric data base contains more than 200 millions entries. It first entry by date is the discovery observation of made by G. Piazzi on 1 January 1802. Before the end of the 1950s, records were published in a variaty of non-MPC journals.

Former publishing journals

 * APO – Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris: Observations
 * AN – Astronomische Nachrichten
 * RM – Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society
 * HD – Mitteilungen der Landessternwarte Heidelberg

List of observatory codes
The following list contains an observatory's name and code as used by the MPC, its location and, optionally, a link to the corresponding article on Wikipedia and an external link to the observatory webpage.