Accurate sky identification is one of the most important functions of an automated telescope mount. The more accurately the robotic telescope is navigated to the investigated part of the sky, the better the observations and discoveries made. In this paper, we present mathematical methods for accurate sky identification (celestial coordinates determination). They include the automatic selection of the reference stars, preliminary and full sky identification, as well as an interaction with international databases, which are a part of the astrometric calibration. All described methods help to receive accurately calculated astrometric data and use it for the positional calibration and better navigation of the automated telescope mount. The developed methods were successfully implemented in the Collection Light Technology (CoLiTec) software. Through its use, more than 1600 small solar system objects were discovered. It has been used in more than 700,000 observations and successful sky identifications, during which, five comets were discovered. Additionally, the accuracy indicators of the processing results of the CoLiTec software are provided in the paper, which shows benefits of the CoLiTec software and lower standard deviation of the sky identification in the case of low signal-to-noise ratios.

Development of computational method for detection of the object’s near-zero apparent motion on the series of ccd-frames

We describe a new iteration method to estimate asteroid coordinates, based on a subpixel Gaussian model of the discrete object image. The method operates by continuous parameters (asteroid coordinates) in a discrete observational space (the set of pixel potentials) of the CCD frame. In this model, the kind of coordinate distribution of the photons hitting a pixel of the CCD frame is known a priori, while the associated parameters are determined from a real digital object image. The method that is developed, which is flexible in adapting to any form of object image, has a high measurement accuracy along with a low calculating complexity, due to the maximum-likelihood procedure that is implemented to obtain the best fit instead of a least-squares method and Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm for minimization of the quadratic form. Since 2010, the method has been tested as the basis of our Collection Light Technology (Co Li Tec) software, which has been installed at several observatories across the world with the aim of the automatic discovery of asteroids and comets in sets of CCD frames. As a result, four comets (C/2010 X1 (Elenin), P/2011 NO1(Elenin), C/2012 S1 (ISON) and P/2013 V3 (Nevski)) as well as more than 1500 small Solar system bodies (including five near-Earth objects (NEOs), 21 Trojan asteroids of Jupiter and one Centaur object) have been discovered. We discuss these results, which allowed us to compare the accuracy parameters of the new method and confirm its efficiency. In 2014, the Co Li Tec software was recommended to all members of the Gaia-FUN-SSO network for analysing observations as a tool to detect faint moving objects in frames.

The capabilities of telescopes allow the plotting of light curves a routine task. This one shifts the main attention of the astronomer from plotting to research. To achieve this goal, we developed a new tool for the automated reduction of photometric observations, which includes the computational method for the brightness assessment of the investigated and comparison stars, brightness equalization of astronomical images using an inverse median filter, as well as light curve plotting and processing using different tools.