Inertially-Aided Image Stabilization

Raw images from telescopes, where the dome moves with the aperture, have been observed to be much less resolved than telescopes without a dome. This degradation is much larger than can be explained by diffraction related to aperture size. One likely cause is the higher vibration environment associated with dome motion. Dome seeing is another possible cause. Assuming the vibration environment is a major contributor to degradation in a staring, imaging system, a simplified optical inertial reference may greatly increase imaging performance when combined with postprocessing. This work will establish feasibility of post processing and real time, image stabilization techniques using the collimated light source projected from a simplified inertial reference in place of a star.