Monday, 13 July 2015

astrometry - Transform pixel coordinates (in FITS file) to equatorial

Assuming that each (square) pixel has the same angular scale (not a given if the field of view is large) of theta degrees/pixel.



Then the declination (in degrees): deltasimeqdelta0+thetay



The right ascension (in degrees): alphasimeqalpha0thetax/cosdelta



where alpha0 and delta0 are the RA and Dec at x=0, y=0. [The minus sign is there because right ascension increases towards the left of a sky image.]



This approximatimation becomes poor as the field of view gets larger.



A slightly more complex, but accurate, approach is described in http://gtn.sonoma.edu/data_reduction/astrometry.php

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