Precise Astronomical Orientation Using Multiple Stars at Their Culmination and Analysis of Different Regression Models
Publication: Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 3
Abstract
Precise determination of the astronomical azimuth using the local hour angle (LHA) of Polaris is only applicable in northern middle latitudes. Therefore, to achieve fast and precise astronomical orientation in any part of the world, this study proposes continuous observations from the same station of multiple north stars and south stars at their culminating positions, thereby reducing the impact of errors in observation station longitude and time measurement. This method, which uses the regression model, determines the astronomical azimuth from the observation station to the ground target. Model validity is affected by various factors including sample size, data distribution, and data quality; therefore, suitable model conditions and individual characteristics of parametric and nonparametric regression are analyzed. Then, a two-step regression method comprising data binning followed by linear regression is proposed. Experimental data are subjected to direct linear regression, the summation of north and south star data followed by linear regression, nonparametric regression of summed data, and two-step regression of summed data. The two-step regression method produces the most accurate results that agree with those of the LHA method within a range of ±1.2120 × 10−6 rad (0.25″). Compared to the LHA method, the proposed method extends the geographical application range and eliminates the need for precise astronomical positioning prior to determining the orientation.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request (Figs. 2–12).
Acknowledgments
This research is funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41604011, 11673076, and 41704006), and the Independent Scientific Research Fund of Information Engineering University. The authors would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing, the two reviewers for their comments on the manuscript, and the editor for the handling of the review process.
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Published In
Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 3 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 28, 2019
Accepted: Feb 12, 2020
Published online: May 21, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 21, 2020
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