Improving the accuracy of identifying objects in digital frames using a procedure of full identification of measurements

Abstract

The variability of shooting conditions affects the quality of images of Solar System objects in a series of frames. Identification of a frame with the corresponding part of the sky becomes difficult if the quality is poor. Because of this fact, the detection quality indicators and estimation of the position of Solar System objects are significantly reduced when using already known methods and international astronomical catalogs. To solve this problem, the procedure of full identification of measurements of objects on digital frames was devised. This procedure is based on the formation of triplets (triangles) of primary identification from the side of the digital frame and the astronomical catalog. Positional coordinates on the frame and ideal tangential coordinates from the catalog were used. Owing to this, a comparison of the primary identification triplets was carried out by comparing the calculated angles of the triangle vertices. The identity of the hypothesis was determined by comparison with the acceptable deviation. The use of the developed full identification procedure makes it possible to reduce the number of false detections and improve identification with reference astronomical objects. The study showed that when identifying frames, astrometry has better accuracy of reference to the starry sky. In addition, the standard deviation of frame identification errors in this case is 6–9 times less than without using the devised procedure. The procedure developed for complete identification was practically tested within the framework of the CoLiTec project. It was implemented in the Lemur software for automated detection of new and tracking of known objects. Owing to the use of Lemur software and the proposed computational procedure implemented in it, more than 700,000 measurements of various astronomical objects under study were successfully identified.