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IAU Minor Planet Center

Minor Planet Center

Packed Dates

Dates of the form YYYYMMDD may be packed into five characters to conserve space.

The first two digits of the year are packed into a single character in column 1 (I = 18, J = 19, K = 20). Columns 2-3 contain the last two digits of the year. Column 4 contains the month and column 5 contains the day, coded as detailed below:

   Month     Day      Character         Day      Character
                     in Col 4 or 5              in Col 4 or 5
   Jan.       1           1             17           H
   Feb.       2           2             18           I
   Mar.       3           3             19           J
   Apr.       4           4             20           K
   May        5           5             21           L
   June       6           6             22           M 
   July       7           7             23           N
   Aug.       8           8             24           O 
   Sept.      9           9             25           P
   Oct.      10           A             26           Q
   Nov.      11           B             27           R
   Dec.      12           C             28           S
             13           D             29           T
             14           E             30           U
             15           F             31           V
             16           G            

Examples:

   1996 Jan. 1    = J9611
   1996 Jan. 10   = J961A
   1996 Sept.30   = J969U
   1996 Oct. 1    = J96A1
   2001 Oct. 22   = K01AM


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