Asteroids Detection Technique: Classic "Blink" An Automated Approch

TL;DR

This paper introduces an automated 'blink' technique for asteroid detection, aiming to replace manual visual methods and improve detection efficiency in the context of increasing CCD camera sizes.

Contribution

It presents a novel automated approach to asteroid detection based on the classic 'blink' method, enhancing detection automation and accuracy.

Findings

Automated 'blink' technique successfully detects asteroids.

Method improves detection speed over manual visual inspection.

Potential for application in various survey scales and amateur observations.

Abstract

Asteroids detection is a very important research field that received increased attention in the last couple of decades. Some major surveys have their own dedicated people, equipment and detection applications, so they are discovering Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) daily. The interest in asteroids is not limited to those major surveys, it is shared by amateurs and mini-surveys too. A couple of them are using the few existent software solutions, most of which are developed by amateurs. The rest obtain their results in a visual manner: they "blink" a sequence of reduced images of the same field, taken at a specific time interval, and they try to detect a real moving object in the resulting animation. Such a technique becomes harder with the increase in size of the CCD cameras. Aiming to replace manual detection, we propose an automated "blink" technique for asteroids detection.