Star tracking for pointing determination of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes

0579319 - FZÚ 2024 RIV FR eng J - Journal Article
Abe, K. - Abe, S. - Aguasca-Cabot, A. - Juryšek, Jakub - Karas, Vladimír - Mandát, Dušan - Pech, Miroslav - Prouza, Michael - Trávníček, Petr … Total 279 authors
Star tracking for pointing determination of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes.
Astronomy & Astrophysics. Roč. 679, Nov (2023), č. článku A90. ISSN 0004-6361. E-ISSN 1432-0746
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT LTT17006; GA MŠMT(CZ) EF18_046/0016007; GA MŠMT EF16_013/0001403
Research Infrastructure: CTA-CZ II - 90105; CTA-CZ III - 90247
Institutional support: RVO:68378271 ; RVO:67985815
Keywords : astroparticle physics * instrumentation: high angular resolution * methods: data analysis * techniques: high angular resolution
OECD category: Particles and field physics; Particles and field physics (ASU-R)
Impact factor: 6.5, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access

We present a novel approach to the determination of the pointing of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) using the trajectories of the stars in their camera’s field of view. The method starts with the reconstruction of the star positions from the Cherenkov camera data, taking into account the point spread function of the telescope, to achieve a satisfying reconstruction accuracy of the pointing position. A simultaneous fit of all reconstructed star trajectories is then performed with the orthogonal distance regression (ODR) method. ODR allows us to correctly include the star position uncertainties and use the time as an independent variable. Having the time as an independent variable in the fit makes it better suitable for various star trajectories.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0348166