Fine tracking system for balloon-borne telescopes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-precision pointing and tracking system for balloon-borne near-infrared telescopes, combining star sensors, star trackers, and predictive algorithms to achieve sub-arcsecond accuracy and diffraction-limited imaging.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel fine tracking system with a star sensor and tracker, along with software and algorithms, enabling near-infrared telescopes on balloons to achieve high-precision tracking.

Findings

Laboratory tests demonstrate sub-arcsecond tracking accuracy.

The system can produce diffraction-limited images in near-infrared bands.

Performance analysis confirms suitability for large telescopes (2-4m).

Abstract

We present the results of a study along with a first prototype of a high precision system (? 1 arcsec) for pointing and tracking light (near-infrared) telescopes on board stratospheric balloons. Such a system is essentially composed by a star sensor and by a star tracker, able to recognize the field and to adequately track the telescope, respectively. We present the software aimed at processing the star sensor image and the predictive algorithm that allows the fine tracking of the source at a sub-pixel level. The laboratory tests of the system are described and its performance is analyzed. We demonstrate how such a device, when used at the focal plane of enough large telescopes (2-4m, F/10), is capable to provide (sub-)arcsec diffraction limited images in the near infrared bands.