Blind Date: Using proper motions to determine the ages of historical images

Details Blind Date: Using proper motions to determine the ages of historical images Blind Date: Using proper motions to determine the ages of historical images

2008-05-06

arxiv.org/abs/0805.0759v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

submitted to AJ

Scientific paper

10.1088/0004-6256/136/4/1490

Astrometric calibration is based on patterns of cataloged stars and therefore effectively assumes a particular epoch, which can be substantially incorrect for historical images. With the known proper motions of stars we can "run back the clock" to an approximation of the night sky in any given year, and in principle the year that best fits stellar patterns in any given image is an estimate of the year in which that image was taken. In this paper we use 47 scanned photographic images of M44 spanning years 1910-1975 to demonstrate this technique. We use only the pixel information in the images; we use no prior information or meta-data about image pointing, scale, orientation, or date. Blind Date returns date meta-data for the input images. It also improves the astrometric calibration of the image because the final astrometric calibration is performed at the appropriate epoch. The accuracy and reliability of Blind Date are functions of image size, pointing, angular resolution, and depth; performance is related to the sum of proper-motion signal-to-noise ratios for catalog stars measured in the input image. All of the science-quality images and 85 percent of the low-quality images in our sample of photographic plate images of M44 have their dates reliably determined to within a decade, many to within months.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Blind Date: Using proper motions to determine the ages of historical images does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Blind Date: Using proper motions to determine the ages of historical images, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Blind Date: Using proper motions to determine the ages of historical images will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-209453