Principal algorithms for the control of Kourovka Observatory SBG camera

Abstract

We report the algorithms used in the software of the upgraded SBG camera. Fast-moving satellites are observed in the "rotated" coordinate system where one of the axes points towards the pole of the object's orbit. The ephemeris for this coordinate system is computed based on the ephemeris for the equatorial coordinate system using special transition matrices. The parameters of the matrices are the coordinates of the orbital pole, which are found by averaging the vector products of the radius vectors of the consecutive positions of the satellite. The position angle of the image is computed as the difference between the hour angles of the orbital and celestial poles in the coordinate system, the pole of which coincides with the optical center of the frame. The speed of object tracking is computed via quadratic interpolation of the ephemeris in the "rotated" coordinate system. © 2012 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.