EPHEMERIDES OF THE 5 MAJOR URANIAN SATELLITES BY NUMERICAL-INTEGRATION

A catalogue is compiled of all available published and unpublished Ear th-based observations of the satellites of Uranus. References are give n to each of the published datasets. A brief survey of the observation s is made concentrating on the different types of data and their quali ty. A numerical integration is fitted to observations in the time inte rval April 1977 to October 1995, which includes some of the best quali ty photographic data, the Voyager astrographic data, CCD data and meri dian circle observations. The mass values found are expressed as the p roduct of the universal gravitational constant times the mass of the b ody, in units of km(3)sec(-2). Values determined for the mass of Uranu s of 5794054+/-163, the dynamical flattening J(2) of Uranus 0.003365+/ -0.000013 and for the mass of Miranda of 4.09+/-0.18 agree well with p reviously published values. The standard errors are formal errors from the least squares. The values obtained for the masses of the outer fo ur satellites are found, from comparison with further solutions made, to be sensitive to the choice of weights used for the spacecraft data. These solutions are discussed in the light of the dynamics of the sat ellite system.