| Issue |
A&A
Volume 606, October 2017
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | A27 | |
| Number of page(s) | 20 | |
| Section | Celestial mechanics and astrometry | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201628167 | |
| Published online | 03 October 2017 | |
Characterizing the astrometric precision limit for moving targets observed with digital-array detectors⋆
1 SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, LNE, 61 avenue de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
e-mail: sebastien.bouquillon@obspm.fr
2 Departamento de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago, Chile
3 Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Astronomisches Recheninstitut, Mönchhofstr. 12-14, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
4 Observatório Nacional, MCTI, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, Rio de Janeiro, RJ CEP 20921-400, Brazil
5 Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Strada Osservatorio 20, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
Received: 20 January 2016
Accepted: 8 June 2017
Aims. We investigate the maximum astrometric precision that can be reached on moving targets observed with digital-sensor arrays, and provide an estimate for its ultimate lower limit based on the Cramér-Rao bound.
Methods. We extend previous work on one-dimensional Gaussian point-spread functions (PSFs) focusing on moving objects and extending the scope to two-dimensional array detectors. In this study the PSF of a stationary point-source celestial body is replaced by its convolution with a linear motion, thus effectively modeling the spread function of a moving target.
Results. The expressions of the Cramér-Rao lower bound deduced by this method allow us to study in great detail the limit of astrometric precision that can be reached for moving celestial objects, and to compute an optimal exposure time according to different observational parameters such as seeing, detector pixel size, decentering, and elongation of the source caused by its drift. Comparison to simulated and real data shows that the predictions of our simple model are consistent with observations.
Key words: astrometry / methods: numerical / instrumentation: detectors / minor planets, asteroids: general
© ESO, 2017
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