Friday, November 16, 2012

Locating the North Celestial Pole

 
img src: Wikipedia
 
  The formula used to find the center of a circle can be used for other applications as well. The formula computes a position that will minimize the difference between pairs of points. The radial distance from the center does not have to be the same for each pair. This will enable us to calculate the position of the North Celestial Pole on an image using the endpoints of a streak formed by the motion of a star. The calculation of the center of rotation is shown below.
 
 

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