Mutual occultations and eclipses of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter in 1997: Astrometric results of observations

• Published in: Solar system research 2009-06, Vol.43 (3), p.240-252
• Main Authors: Emelyanov, Nikolai V., Vashkov'Yak, S. N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Albedo; Astronomy; Astrophysics; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Eclipses; Galilean satellites; Internet; Jupiter; Observations and Techniques; Occultation; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Planetology; Satellites; Studies; Systematic errors
• ISSN: 0038-0946; 1608-3423
• DOI: 10.1134/S003809460903006X

In 2006, a complete database of the international campaign on photometric observations of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter in the 1997 epoch of mutual occultations and eclipses was published. Only two thirds of the observations were considered by other authors beforehand. In this study, we have processed the whole observational database with an original technique in order to obtain the astrometric data. We determined 301 relative positions of the satellites from photometric observations performed at 50 observatories around the world. The results are put into a common database of all observations of the natural planetary satellites called the Natural Satellites Data Center (NSDC) available on the Internet site http://www.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/index.htm . The influence of random and systematic errors on the accuracy of determining the coordinates of satellites has been analyzed. It has been shown that the largest systematic errors are caused by inaccurate elimination of the background of the photometric measurements and by the erroneous data on the albedo of satellites. The actual accuracy of astrometric results is 0.05″ and 0.07″ in right ascension and declination, respectively. New recommendations for photometric observations of satellites during the considered phenomena have been developed in order to avoid the systematic errors.