Related papers: Design and construction of a high resolution, port…
Using a portable star tracking system, we are able to obtain the geographical position of the observer, longitude, latitude and North direction. In this work, a new optimization method has been applied to improve accuracy in calculation of…
Global navigation satellite systems use appropriate satellite constellations to get the coordinates of an user -close to Earth- in an almost inertial reference system. We have simulated both GPS and GALILEO constellations. Uncertainties in…
The exploration of interstellar space will require autonomous navigation systems that do not rely on tracking from the Earth. Here I develop a method to determine the 3D position and 3D velocity of a spacecraft in deep space using a star…
The star tracker is generally affected by the atmospheric background light and the aerodynamic environment when working in near space, which results in missing stars or false stars. Moreover, high-speed maneuvering may cause star trailing,…
In the context of relativistic positioning, the coordinates of a given user may be calculated by using suitable information broadcast by a 4-tuple of satellites. Our 4-tuples belong to the Galileo constellation. Recently, we estimated the…
Measuring the stellar position angle provides valuable information on binary stellar formation or stellar spin axis evolution. We aim to develop a method for determining the absolute stellar position angle using spectro-astrometric analysis…
In this article we outline the structure of a general relativistic astrometric model which has been developed to deduce the position and proper motion of stars from 1-microarcsecond optical observations made by an astrometric satellite…
We propose a framework for compressive sensing of images with local distinguishable objects, such as stars, and apply it to solve a problem in celestial navigation. Specifically, let x be an N-pixel real-valued image, consisting of a small…
The motion of satellite constellations similar to GPS and Galileo is numerically simulated and, then, the region where bifurcation (double positioning) occurs is appropriately represented. In the cases of double positioning, the true…
Astrometry is one of the oldest branches of astronomy which measures the position, the proper motion and parallax of celestial objects. Following the Hipparcos and Gaia missions that have measured several billions of them using global…
This paper investigates an autonomous navigation method for spacecraft operating in the outer solar system, up to 250 AU from the Sun, using the parallactic shifts of nearby stars. These measurements enable estimation of the spacecraft…
We have built and tested a compact, low-cost, but very-high-performance astronomical polarimeter based on a continuously rotating half-wave plate and a high-speed imaging detector. The polarimeter is suitable for small telescopes up to ~1 m…
A general approach to the problem of positioning by means of pulsars or other pulsating sources located at infinity is described. The counting of the pulses for a set of different sources whose positions in the sky and periods are assumed…
We present here a method for the relativistic positioning in spacetime based on the reception of pulses from sources of electromagnetic signals whose worldline is known. The method is based on the use of a four-dimensional grid covering the…
Emission relativistic coordinates are a class of spacetime coordinates defined and generated by four emitters (satellites, pulsars) broadcasting their proper time by radio signals. They are the main ingredient of the simplest conceivable…
VLBI astrometry allows coordinates of celestial radio sources to be determined with submilliarcsecond accuracy. In particular, with differential VLBI astrometry, the standard errors of relative positions and proper motions can be as small…
The Breakthrough Starshot project aims to send centimeter-sized, gram-scale "StarChip" probes to Alpha Centauri at a speed of $\sim0.2c$. On the other hand, Zhang \& Li recently proposed that trans-relativistic cameras may be sent to any…
The first step toward doing high-precision astrometry is the measurement of individual stars in individual images, a step that is fraught with dangers when the images are undersampled. The key to avoiding systematic positional error in…
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the accuracy of our knowledge of close stellar passage distances in the pre-GAIA era.We used the most precise astrometric and kinematic data available at the moment and prepared a list of 40 stars…
As a planet transits the face of a star, it accelerates along the line-of-sight. The changing delay in the propagation of photons produces an apparent deceleration of the planet across the sky throughout the transit. This persistent…