05-04-2018, 07:50 PM
"Do you reverse engineer the position USING star info ?"
That's pretty much it - we'll first spend time trying to find something we recognize in space, set the base pointing and then spend time slewing the telescope all around the sky measuring the telescope position using accurate star positions. That goes into a software model which will then be used to point the telescope within about 0.5 arcseconds of where we want to look.
If we can't do that, then something is badly wrong, but have never known that to happen due to an earthquake. Before we even do this though, the whole observatory: building, dome and telescope will be checked out to ensure every moving bit and the structure works.
That's pretty much it - we'll first spend time trying to find something we recognize in space, set the base pointing and then spend time slewing the telescope all around the sky measuring the telescope position using accurate star positions. That goes into a software model which will then be used to point the telescope within about 0.5 arcseconds of where we want to look.
If we can't do that, then something is badly wrong, but have never known that to happen due to an earthquake. Before we even do this though, the whole observatory: building, dome and telescope will be checked out to ensure every moving bit and the structure works.