Description

Increase signal-to-noise ratio on small moons around planets in multi-frame observations according to the expected position of the moon from JPL Horizons.

shifted-stacked-Despina

This image shows the utility of the software. Thirty images of Neptune from Keck’s NIRC2 instrument, each separated by 1-2 minutes, have been shifted according to the orbit of Despina to increase the signal-to-noise of that moon. Despina appears as a point source, whereas all the other labeled moonlets appear as streaks. If you look closely, you can see the individual images that make up Proteus’s streak. Neptune is a streak, too, but it’s so overexposed you can’t tell. The sidelobes of the PSF can be seen on Despina. I compared this stacked PSF to a calibration star PSF and the match is pretty close, so the shift-and-stack is quite accurate.