On Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:03:41 GMT, "U. N. McGregor"
wrote:

Where can I find concise directions on how to determine orbital elements.
All I ever see on the internet is description about what they are and mean
but never the way to actually do that type of calculation.

I've found _Methods of Orbit Determination for the Micro Computer_, by
Dan Boulet, to be the best _practical_ book on orbital dynamics (by
far). It briefly covers history and derivations, but is strongly focused
on practical math and algorithms. It's available at
http://www.willbell.com/math/mc10.htm .
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com