Positions and Motions of Minor Planets, Comets and Satellites

Abstract

In the past triennium members of the Commission 20 have been very active in studying positions and motions of minor planets, comets and satellites including rings by observational and theoretical investigations, as it is described in this report. In fact observers have been producing tremendous amount of astrometric data, much more than we could imagine twenty years ago, when we heard many complains and appeals to observers for needs of more observations, particularly, for minor planets and satellites. Technically, several new devices to detect faint objects and to measure their positions more effectively, have been developed. Theoreticians have faced many interesting and important problems to explain observational facts with several powerful methods developed recently.