WAMO Inspector

1. Purpose

The application checks MPC OBS80 observation lines against WAMO and derives one explained winner/loser decision per object. It does not replace the official MPC decision, but it makes the assumptions and rule path visible.

The main window has three panes: input lines, raw WAMO output, and the analyzed table. All panes have horizontal and vertical scrollbars so long OBS80 rows and long reasons remain accessible.

2. Top input fields

The Number, designation, comet, MPEC field accepts MPC numbers, provisional designations, comet designations, and MPEC references. Examples: 433, 2022 FK4, C/2025 A1, MPEC 2026-N10, or short 2026-N10. Short MPEC entries are stored in history with the MPEC prefix.

After Download, the program downloads MPC or MPEC data and then starts the WAMO check automatically. For MPECs, additional MPC object data can be appended to compare later observations of the same object.

The file field loads local OBS80 files. If an MPEC context is active, additional data can be appended to it. This is useful when comparing your own post-publication observations with an already issued MPEC.

3. Input pane

The input pane shows the exact OBS80 lines sent to WAMO. Duplicates are removed as far as possible. Rows that only differ by the internal MPC key after magnitude/band can be recognized as duplicates and hidden.

Satellite rows marked with uppercase S are sent to WAMO; lowercase s rows are skipped. Rover observations R/r are not sent because they create too many special cases for this workflow.

4. WAMO output pane

This pane shows the valid WAMO responses. View WAMO Output displays the original WAMO text, not the interpreted table created by WAMO Inspector.

5. Table pane

The table contains observation time, submission time, local night, delta, source, WAMO id, RA/DEC, object id, MPS, station, opposition, elongation, discovery flag, loser distance, and reason. Columns can be shown or hidden from the table context menu.

Delta is the observation-to-submission delay in hh:mm:ss. For MPEC runs, MPEC-Diff shows the distance between submission time and MPEC issue time; it is omitted for non-MPEC runs.

Orange marks the winner, blue marks the current row, gray marks unknown or inferred values. Oppositions use distinct colors and the legend includes the opposition year where possible.

6. Discovery logic

The decision is made per object. If a file contains multiple objects, each object gets its own logistics. There can be only one winner per object.

Candidate oppositions must satisfy the configured night rule. By default, the MPC view is used: one night observed by two different ground stations still counts as one night. The option to count two different stations in one night as two nights is therefore normally off.

The winning opposition is the one with the earliest “two-nights-complete” timestamp. Inside that opposition, the station with the earliest submission time wins. If submission times are equal, the first observation time wins after all other criteria have been applied.

7. Nights and satellites

For ground-based stations, nights are station-local when longitude is available. For non-ground stations or missing longitude, UTC is used.

Satellite observations have no real local night. Their first satellite night starts with the first satellite observation for that station, the second starts after 12 hours, and so on. If an opposition contains only satellite observations, satellite observations may become winners. If satellite and ground candidates compete, the normal two-night and submission rules decide.

8. WAMO ids and historical observations

Normal WAMO ids are 25 characters wide. Historical after-the-fact ids may be 19 characters wide and contain no submission date; in those cases the observation date is used as submission date and shown with gray background. Any other id length raises a warning.

9. Comets and MPECs

Comets are analyzed technically with the same rules, but the table notes that official comet discovery can follow different professional rules. For MPECs, the issue time is parsed and shown in the status line; MPEC-Diff appears only for MPEC runs.

10. Cache, logs, audit, and updates

The optional WAMO cache avoids repeated online calls and can be disabled or deleted. SQLite WAL is never used. Logs and reports stay local in the project or installation folder.

The backward audit compares MPC and WAMO assumptions while resuming from a state file. SBX is only queried for differences. WAMO Inspector checks the published version file once per day. If a newer version has been available for at least 60 days, operation stops and the download page is shown.