Online asteroid data -> wish list?

[Steffen Möller]

Dear KStars-Team,

There are multiple web sites out there that support amateur astronomers 
with the prioritization of their asteroidal observations. I mean, there 
is no chance for kstars to know this offline since only the MPC knows 
when a newly reported asteroid needs a confirmation. These are somewhat 
tricky at times in that even when you are granted the opportunity to 
specify the geographic location of your telescope, these do not 
necessarily state the exact time at which it is available (which you 
need to ask for the ephemerides in a second step) or the object is so 
low above the horizon that one would shy away from it. So, I'd very much 
like to see these dynamically created web sites auto-feed my wish list 
and fall back to the comfort of kstars.

Would that be desirable? If so, then I propose to contact the 
provider(s) of these web sites about the degree they want to support any 
such project e.g. by a XML/JSON version of their output if they don't 
have it already or the parsing could be a first code contribution of 
mine. These sites also differ in the extra information these offer about 
the asteroid. Once could such also consider to extend the data model 
that represents asteroids in kstars with such dynamic information. To 
mind comes the date at which the asteroid was last observed.

Please kindly instruct me about what I should do towards any such 
development.

With kind regards,

Steffen