astropy / astropy/astroquery

MPC.get_observations() missing some MPC observations

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mpc
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Python
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Description

I noticed that astroquery.mpc.MPC.get_observations() is in general only returning some of the observations that are listed for an object with a preliminary designation at the Minor Planet Center website's database search feature: [https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search](url). For example,

>> obstable = MPC.get_observations('2010 EA50', id_type='asteroid designation', cache=False)
>> len(obstable)
12

So get_observations() is returning 12 observations, whereas the MPC gives 187 observations. The missing observations do not seem to be in any chronological order.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing MPC.get_observations('2010 EA50', id_type='asteroid designation', cache=False) and compare its 12 returned observations with the 187 shown by the Minor Planet Center database search. Trace the observation retrieval entry point and determine why results are missing or unordered; done means the method returns the complete observation set.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
api
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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