[LEAPSECS] Telescope pointing

Tom Van Baak (lab) tvb at leapsecond.com
Fri Jun 8 17:04:05 EDT 2012


Would it be possible to fudge the longitude instead of the time?
That way automatic trackers that assume UTC is almost UT1 would still find their target.

/tvb (iPhone4)

On Jun 8, 2012, at 11:48 AM, Rob Seaman <seaman at noao.edu> wrote:


> Some other issues: pointing the telescope is not the same as tracking, solar system targets move at non-sidereal rates, IR cameras and others at non-visible wavelengths have to be pointed with blind offsets, fiber-fed spectrographs place hundreds (thousands in the near future) of tiny apertures across the field of view, issues for alt-azimuth mounts will differ from equatorial mounts, field rotators, dispersion correctors, in the radio there are sidebands, interferometry, etc. Research telescopes often differ quite significantly in concept from the typical cartoon depiction as a spyglass. Universal Time is a simplifying concept many of the variations have in common.

>

> Rob

> --

> <planet_with_spyglass.png>

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