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A process for retrieval of data from a compiled star catalogue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

William Stein
William Stein*
Affiliation:
Naval Surface Weapons Center, Dahlgren, Virginia

Extract

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For certain space vehicles there is a need to accurately determine vehicle attitude. Some of these spacecraft, such as NASA’s planned LANDSAT-D and Gamma Ray Explorer, will use observations from star sensors to determine fine attitude. One input to the attitude determination software is a specialized stellar data base. The initial step in this software is to identify and match the star images with catalogue stars. The Naval Surface Weapons Center (NSWC) has compiled a special star catalogue for such applications. This paper describes the criteria for the NSWC catalogue and how it is utilized. Because of the large number of stars available, a subset can be divided into cells defined by mission criteria. The cells are stored as a random access mass storage file, thus allowing quick access to the information. This greatly reduces execution time for the software. One scheme for accessing stars from mass storage is described.

Type
D. Recent Software Developments
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 64: Automated Data Retrieval in Astronomy , 1982 , pp. 123 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1982

References

Gottlieb, D.M.: December, 1977, Computer Sciences Corporation, CSC/SD-76/604/UDl, Skymap System Description (Revision 1).Google Scholar
Ochsenbein, F., Egret, D., and Bischoff, M.: 1977, “The Catalogue of Stellar Identifications” in Compilation, Critical Evaluation and Distribution of Stellar Data, pp. 31–36, Jaschek, C. and Wilkins, G.A., Editors, D. Reidei Publ. Co., Dordrecht, Holland.Google Scholar