ABSTRACT
For any celestial body the six elements are determined separately and can be used in principle for computation of its position for any epoch. These six elements are Ω, i, ω, a, e, and T. Hence, it is necessary to develop a method of determination of these elements directly from observations. The problem of determination of the elements of the orbit is reduced to the solution of an inverse problem, namely: from known coordinates of the celestial body find the elements of its orbit. Newton was the first to formulate the problem in this formulation and to solve it using a graphical method. Later Laplace, Lagrange and especially Gauss developed highly precise theoretical and practical methods of determination of orbital elements from observations. The observations being required is a condition common for the determination of elements for all types of orbits, elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic.
