Data Set Overview
  =================
  This data set includes names, designations, and discovery
  circumstances for the numbered asteroids, sorted in order of
  number.  This data set supercedes past versions of both the
  ASTNAMES and DISCOVER asteroid data sets.  It represents an
  extension of a file originally prepared by Pilcher (1979)
  [PILCHER1979] for the Tucson Revised Index of Asteroid Data
  (TRIAD) and updated in Pilcher (1989) [PILCHER1989] for the
  Asteroids II database.  The data for asteroids numbered 4045
  and greater were either provided by the Minor Planet Center or
  extracted from the Minor Planet Circulars, which are published
  by the Minor Planet Center on behalf of Commission 20 of the
  International Astronomical Union.  In some cases, an institution
  or survey is credited with the discovery rather than an individual.
  No attempt has been made to correct the inconsistencies in the
  presentation of names (that is, some names are given with initials
  and some are not), or in the way locations are specified (for
  example, Pilcher distinguishes between the Lowell Observatory and
  Anderson Mesa locations in Flagstaff).
 
  Due to the limitations of the ASCII character set, diacritical
  marks are lost in this machine-readable form.  No adjustment has
  been made in the spelling of the names to correct for the loss
  of diacritical marks.  This choice was made to enable users to search
  on a known spelling of the name.
 
  This version of the data set contains the names, designations,
  and discovery circumstances for all asteroids numbered as of the
  2000 April 18 batch of Minor Planet Circulars, and includes
  14788 entries.
 
  References:  Pilcher, F. 1979.  Circumstances of minor planet
               discovery.  In Asteroids (T. Gehrels, Ed.),
               pp. 1130-1154.  Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson.
               [PILCHER1979]
 
               Pilcher, F. 1989.  The circumstances of minor planet
               discovery.  In Asteroids II (R. P. Binzel, T. Gehrels,
               and M. S. Matthews, Eds.), pp. 1002-1033.  Univ. of
               Arizona Press, Tucson.  [PILCHER1989]
 
  Modification History
  ====================
  The discover data set is a combination of the data originally
  provided in the astnames and discover data sets.  Astname was first
  introduced into PDS at the April 1993 asteroid data sets review,
  and has been updated yearly since that time.  Discover was first
  introduced at the April 1994 asteroid data sets review, and has
  also been updated yearly since then.  At the March 1996 review, for
  the first time the two data sets were combined into a single data
  set.  Updates of both the astnames and discover components consists
  of adding entries for asteroids numbered since the last update.
  The 'discnote' file, with notes on individual asteroids, represents
  notes prepared by Pilcher for his original version, and has not been
  updated since the first PDS version of this data set.
 
  Parameters
  ==========
  The data table includes fields for asteroid catalog number, name,
  principal provisional designation, discovery date, discovery
  location, and the name(s) of the discoverer(s).

Review
  ======
  This data set underwent external peer review on June 1, 2000.
 
  Limitations
  ===========
  Only asteroids numbered as of April 18, 2000 are included.