Ludwig Combrinck

9 Questions 138 Answers 0 Followers

Questions related from Ludwig Combrinck

Is there a future for ground-based astrometry after GAIA?

Considering the revolution that occurred in terms of optical astrometry due to astrometric satellites such as Hipparcos (even though there were parallel developments and major improvements on...

16 May 2014 2,522 34 View

What is the effect of microlensing and weak lensing on the stability of the International Celestial Reference Frame?

Spacetime curvature creates a space time "seeing" effect, which is analogous to astronomical seeing. This is due to microlensing and weak lensing, which becomes problematic from an ICRF stability...

24 April 2014 7,458 41 View

What is currently the most accurate star catalogue to use for astrometric purposes?

There are many star catalogues available, which star catalogue is currently the most accurate (maybe the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog, UCAC4)?

21 February 2014 2,883 53 View

What are essential and nice features to have in a telescope control system?

I am currently writing software to control a small refractor (125 mm). Drive motors are brushed DC, encoders are 10 000 ppr mounted on the motors, gearbox has 1:8000 ratio. The German equatorial...

17 February 2014 9,795 12 View

Is there a place for and use of "old technology" and "old science" in modern today, or should most of it be discarded as no longer required?

Typically, modern and new instrumentation implies that it is smaller, faster, more accurate, less power hungry and more suitable for today's applications. Most of the time these 'modern'...

27 January 2014 3,010 13 View

What is the influence of overconfidence on scientific experiments?

Whenever individuals, or groups of scientists plan an experiment, small or large, there is a bias in the estimated accuracy or 'outcome' which more than often favour high accuracies. This 'higher...

16 December 2013 3,436 7 View

What is better for star field observations, the CCD or CMOS imager?

Typically and until quite recently CCD (charge coupled device) cameras were used on astronomical telescopes. Recently, new, sensitive, fast and high resolution CMOS (complementary metal oxide...

07 December 2013 8,369 14 View

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a 'modern' alt-az telescope mount versus other designs such as a German equatorial mount?

There are many telescope mount configurations. Typically astronomical telescopes used German equatorial mounts and optical tracking used azimuth-elevation mounts. Modern astronomical telescopes...

04 December 2013 7,396 27 View

What are sources of error in testing GTR by measuring the deflection of light in the vicinity of the Sun during a total solar eclipse?

I am setting up an experiment to measure the gradient of spacetime curvature around the Sun during the March 2015 total solar eclipse. The first successful measurement of this type was done by...

18 November 2013 2,246 27 View