To: atm{at}shore.net
From: MLThiebaux 
Reply-To: MLThiebaux 


Here's a question for those who use or understand Go To mountings.

I suppose you initialize the system by sighting on 2 stars of known
coordinates.  From then on the computer takes over to transform the
coordinates of any target point to some sort of internal coordinates.  But
the math is overdetermined.  Two stars yield 4 numbers and you only need 3
to find the target or orient a spherical coordinate system.  Right?

My question is what happens to the 4th number?  I can only see two possible
answers: (1) it is discarded; (2) a statistical best fit is found based on
estimated errors in the initialization.

Thanking anybody in advance for comments or the answer,

Martial Thiebaux
Rawdon Hills, Nova Scotia

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