Tycho Tracker and mag 21 Asteroids

[Dennis]

I recently grabbed a series of images that showed the trail of the James Webb Space Telescope at the second Lagrange point (L2) from Brisbane, and in the FOV, The Sky X Pro showed a plethora of Asteroids, although I only managed to clearly see the trails of 1999 XK98 and 1985 CD.

I’d recently heard of an application called Tycho-Tracker which, according to their website at:

https://www.tycho-tracker.com/

"Tycho implements a technique called Synthetic Tracking to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of moving targets. Using this technique, the movement of the target need not be known in advance.

Synthetic Tracking is a process that involves stacking dozens of images in thousands of different ways. Fortunately, Tycho takes advantage of the thousands of cores on the GPU video card to accelerate the process. Most datasets can be solved in under 10 minutes.

Detection of moving targets is just the first step. The next step is acquiring accurate and precise measurements of the targets. Using the Gaia EDR3 star catalog, the measurements generated by Tycho can yield residuals better than 0.5 arcseconds on average."

So, I downloaded the application and followed the User Guide to set up the System with its required components, such as additional apps, catalogues (e.g. ATLAS, Gaia EDR3), setting up my location, etc. then I followed the step-by-step instructions and discovered that the FOV had a total of 17 known Asteroids ranging from mag 16.7 to 23.2. Who’d have thunk that!

Using the tools and functions within Tycho Tracker, it suggested that it had “located” 2008 XY63, a mag 21.3 Asteroid in the Frame. I have included Screen Shots showing:

• Image Manager
• Known Objects List
• Image Viewer (aligned on field stars)
• Image Viewer (aligned on object)
• Object Profile

The Object Profile suggests that there is a statistically significant object in the predicted location of 2008 XY63 and who am I to argue.

What a stunning piece of software!

Cheers

Dennis

[Averton (P and C)]

Wow!!! What an amazing piece of software. Also a talented operator Well done.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by Averton

Wow!!! What an amazing piece of software. Also a talented operator Well done.

Thank you Clare & Peter, I appreciate your comments.

I read through the User Guide of Tycho Tracker and followed a "monkey-see-monkey-do" recipe for Synthetic Tracking, where the SW will inspect the images and identify any potential unknow tracks, by measuring motion vectors across the images.

I knew the JWST was moving at 1.84 " /min at a PA of 300.51 degrees, so I limited the search to these parameters and TT found the trail and tracked the JWST across 15 frames in less than 60 secs of processing time. When I left the search unbounded with maximum sensitivity, the estimated processing time ran out to over 7 hours so limiting the search via motion and PA is very useful.

My head is still spinning with the conceptual framework behind the SW and the talent of the young man who designed and wrote the application.

Cheers

Dennis

[Averton (P and C)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Thank you Clare & Peter, I appreciate your comments.

I read through the User Guide of Tycho Tracker and followed a "monkey-see-monkey-do" recipe for Synthetic Tracking, where the SW will inspect the images and identify any potential unknow tracks, by measuring motion vectors across the images.

I knew the JWST was moving at 1.84 " /min at a PA of 300.51 degrees, so I limited the search to these parameters and TT found the trail and tracked the JWST across 15 frames in less than 60 secs of processing time. When I left the search unbounded with maximum sensitivity, the estimated processing time ran out to over 7 hours so limiting the search via motion and PA is very useful.

My head is still spinning with the conceptual framework behind the SW and the talent of the young man who designed and wrote the application.




Cheers

Dennis

There are some remarkable young people doing some amazing things in this world. It is great to see.