Minor Planet Center “CometEls.txt” has a broken row with asterisks for the year

I am refering to comet_neowise_chart.py I am using Python 3.9.1 and line 34: comet = sun + mpc.comet_orbit(row, ts, GM_SUN) fails because the perihelion year is a string.

May I suggest adding the following fix, it just converts the perihelion_year from a string to an int.

    comets = (comets.sort_values('reference')
              .groupby('designation', as_index=False).last()
              .set_index('designation', drop=False))
    comets['perihelion_year'] = comets['perihelion_year'].astype(int)

Once this is done everything is Ok. By the way there are no issues using Python 3.9 so I think you can update this dot point Supports Python 2.6–2.7 and Python 3.3–3.5. in Skyfield to Supports Python 2.6–2.7 and Python 3.3–3.9.

[brandon-rhodes]

Thank you for following up on that, on behalf of the rest of us! I’m glad to hear it’s not a permanent change to the file format.

[ajpmaclean]

I just received notification that this is fixed. I also verified it.