Based on the light an exoplanet blocks from its host star as it passes in front of it during a transit, the mid-transit time can be determined. Periodic variations in mid-transit times can indicate another planet’s gravitational influence. We investigate 83 transits of TrES-1 b as observed from 6-inch telescopes in the MicroObservatory robotic telescope network. The EXOTIC data reduction pipeline is used to process these transits, fit transit models to light curves, and calculate transit midpoints. This paper details the methodology for analyzing transit timing variations (TTVs) and using transit measurements to maintain ephemerides. The application of Lomb-Scargle period analysis for studying the plausibility of TTVs is explained. The analysis of the resultant TTVs from 46 transits from MicroObservatory and 47 transits from archival data in the Exoplanet Transit Database indicated the possible existence of other planets affecting the orbit of TrES-1 and improved the precision of the ephemeris by one order of magnitude. We now estimate the ephemeris to be (2 455 489.66026 BJDTDB ± 0.00044 d) + (3.0300689 ± 0.0000007) d×epoch. This analysis also demonstrates the role of small telescopes in making precise midtransit time measurements, which can be used to help maintain ephemerides and perform TTV analysis. The maintenance of ephemerides allows for an increased ability to optimize telescope time on large groundbased telescopes and space telescope missions.

We present our analysis results for an updated orbital ephemeris for the dipping low mass X-ray binary 4U 1624-49, using the light curve collected by the All Sky Monitor (ASM) on board the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and the Monitor of All-Sky X-ray Image (MAXI). To make clear dip profiles, the light curve from the ASM and the MAXI were divided into ten 500d segments and four 400d segments for ASM and MAXI light curves, respectively, and folded with the linear ephemeris proposed by Smale et al. (2001). The phases of dip centers were determined by the method adopted from Hu et al. (2008). The phase drift was then fitted with a linear function. We obtained an updated orbital period of 0.869896(1) d and a phase zero epoch of JD 2450088.6618(57). No clear orbital period derivative is detected with a 2-sigma upper limit of 1.4 X 10-6(yr)-1 from a quadratic curve fitting of the dip phase evolution.

X1822-371 is a low mass X-ray binary with an accretion disk corona exhibiting partial eclipses and pulsations in the X-ray band. We update its orbital ephemeris by combining new RXTE observations and historical records, with a total time span of 34 years. There were 11 RXTE observations in 2011 but the eclipsing prole can be seen in only 4 of them. The eclipsing center times were obtained by fitting the profile with the same model as previous studies. Combined with the eclipsing center times reported by Iaria et al. (2011), the O-C analysis was processed. A quadratic model was applied to fit the O-C results and produced a mean orbital period derivative of _Porb = 1.339(25) X 10-10s=s, which is slightly smaller than previous records. In addition to the orbital modulation from the orbital profile, we also present our preliminary results for measuring the orbital parameters using the orbital Doppler effect from the pulsation of the neutron star in X1822-371. The updated orbital parameters from eclipsing profiles will be further compared with the ones from pulsar timing.

The DE405 ephemeride is introduced as TRAO solar ephemeris system to support the apparent coordinates of planets after 2000. The time delay between planets and observer has to be regarded to get the apparent position of planet. Some fast algorithms about time delay are suggested to reduce the computing time. The CSI method is applied to run these algorithms on any O/S including both real-time and run-time machine.

This paper presents a kinematic ephemeris generator for Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) and its performance test results. The kinematic ephemeris generator consists of a ground ephemeris compressor and an onboard ephemeris calculator. The ground ephemeris compressor has to compress desired orbit propagation data by using an interpolation method in a ground system. The onboard ephemeris calculator can generate spacecraft ephemeris and the Sun/Moon ephemeris in onboard computer of the KPLO. Among many interpolation methods, polynomial interpolation with uniform node, Chebyshev interpolation, Hermite interpolation are tested for their performances. As a result of the test, it is shown that all the methods have some cases that meet requirements but there are some performance differences. It is also confirmed that, the Chebyshev interpolation shows better performance than other methods for spacecraft ephemeris generation, and the polynomial interpolation with uniform nodes yields good performance for the Sun/Moon ephemeris generation. Based on these results, a Kinematic ephemeris generator is developed for the KPLO mission. Then, the developed ephemeris generator can find an approximating function using interpolation method considering the size and accuracy of the data to be transmitted.

This study presents the generation and accuracy assessment of predicted orbital ephemeris based on satellite laser ranging (SLR) for geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites. Two GEO satellites are considered: GEO-Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT)-2B (GK-2B) for simulational validation and Compass-G1 for real-world quality assessment. SLR-based orbit determination (OD) is proactively performed to generate orbital ephemeris. The length and the gap of the predicted orbital ephemeris were set by considering the consolidated prediction format (CPF). The resultant predicted ephemeris of GK-2B is directly compared with a pre-specified true orbit to show 17.461 m and 23.978 m, in 3D root-mean-square (RMS) position error and maximum position error for one day, respectively. The predicted ephemeris of Compass-G1 is overlapped with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) final orbit from the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) analysis center (AC) to yield 36.760 m in 3D RMS position differences. It is also compared with the CPF orbit from the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) to present 109.888 m in 3D RMS position differences. These results imply that SLR-based orbital ephemeris can be an alternative candidate for improving the accuracy of commonly used radar-based orbital ephemeris for GEO satellites.

현재 선박들은 교량 및 시설물 통과시 선박의 흘수에 토대를 둔 대략적인 예측치로 안전통항 높이를 결정하고 있으나 표준선박을 제외한 바지선 등이 항해시 바다의 조석간만에 따라 안전통항 높이 예측치가 부정확할 때가 종종 있다. 또한 지구 온난화 및 국지적 해면 상승으로 인한 해양재난으로 인명피해와 재산피해가 점차 급증하고 있으며, 지진이 아닌 유사 재난해파에 대해서는 경고할 수 없는 문제가 상존하고 있다. 본 논문에서는 선박 등이 안전통항을 가능하게 하고, 쓰나미와 같은 재난해파로부터 피해를 절감시키기 위해 필요한 위성항법 기반의 정밀수직측위 기술들 중 해양 정밀측위 활용을 위한 GPS 정밀위성궤도의 보간에 관한 연구를 수행하였다. 본 논문에서 사용하는 GPS 정밀위성궤도는 국제 GNSS 서비스 기구인 IGS로부터 제공받을 수 있지만 데이터 간격이 15분으로 실시간 정밀측위시 최대 15분의 위성궤도 지연으로 오차가 발생한다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 실시간 정밀측위 오차를 줄이기 위해 보간시 발생하는 발진현상을 효과적으로 제거하는 방법을 제안하였으며, 마지막으로 보간된 GPS 위성궤도의 정확도를 분석하였다.