* get orbfit positions*

        **Key Arguments:**
            - ``expsoureObjects`` -- a dictionary with exposure names as keys and a dictionary of exposure ra, dec and moving object names/mpc number as values
            - ``astorbString`` -- as string of the object orbital elements to be used with orbfit

        **Return:**
            - ``orbfitMatches`` -- all of the ephemerides generated by Orbfit that match against the exact ATLAS exposure footprint

def _get_orbfit_positions(
            self,
            expsoureObjects,
            astorbString):
        """* get orbfit positions*

        **Key Arguments:**
            - ``expsoureObjects`` -- a dictionary with exposure names as keys and a dictionary of exposure ra, dec and moving object names/mpc number as values
            - ``astorbString`` -- as string of the object orbital elements to be used with orbfit

        **Return:**
            - ``orbfitMatches`` -- all of the ephemerides generated by Orbfit that match against the exact ATLAS exposure footprint
        """
        self.log.info('starting the ``_get_orbfit_positions`` method')

        # WRITE THE CUSTOM ORBFIT DATABASE TO FILE
        now = datetime.now()
        astorbFilepath = now.strftime("/tmp/astorb-%Y%m%dt%H%M%S%f.dat")

        try:
            self.log.debug("attempting to open the file %s" %
                           (astorbFilepath,))
            writeFile = codecs.open(astorbFilepath, encoding='utf-8', mode='w')
        except IOError, e:
            message = 'could not open the file %s' % (astorbFilepath,)
            self.log.critical(message)
            raise IOError(message)
        writeFile.write(astorbString)
        writeFile.close()

        orbfitMatches = []
        for expname, v in expsoureObjects.iteritems():
            raDeg = v["ra"]
            decDeg = v["dec"]
            mjd = v["mjd"]
            objects = {}

            for o in v["objects"]:

                if o[0]:
                    objects[o[0]] = [o[0], o[1], o[2]]
                else:
                    objects[o[1].replace(" ", "")] = [o[0], o[1], o[2]]

            if expname[:2] == "02":
                obscode = "T05"
            elif expname[:2] == "01":
                obscode = "T08"

            orbfitEph = orbfit_ephemeris(
                log=self.log,
                obscode=obscode,
                objectId=objects.keys(),
                mjd=mjd,
                settings=self.settings,
                verbose=True,
                astorbPath=astorbFilepath
            )

            for o in orbfitEph:
                o["expname"] = expname
                o["mpc_number"] = objects[o["object_name"]][0]
                o["orbital_elements_id"] = objects[o["object_name"]][
                    2]
                o["object_name"] = objects[o["object_name"]][
                    1]

            matchedEph = self._match_objects_against_atlas_footprint(
                orbfitEph=orbfitEph, ra=raDeg, dec=decDeg)

            orbfitMatches += matchedEph

        try:
            os.remove(astorbFilepath)
        except:
            pass

        self.log.info('completed the ``_get_orbfit_positions`` method')
        return orbfitMatches