A new method for the determination of an intermediate orbit using three positions of a small body on the celestial sphere

We propose a new method for the determination of the preliminary orbit of a small celestial body using three pairs of its angular coordinates in three moments of time. The method is based on the use of the intermediate orbit we constructed earlier using three position vectors and the corresponding time moments. This intermediate orbit accounts for the main part of the perturbations of the motion of the body under study. We compare the results obtained by the classical Lagrange-Gauss method, Herrick-Gibbs method, generalized Herrick-Gibbs method, and the new method by the examples of the determination of the orbit of the small planet 1566 Icarus. The comparison showed that the new method is a highly efficient tool for the study of perturbed motion. It is especially efficient when applied to high-precision observational data covering short arcs of the orbit.