ORION software tool for the geometrical calibration of all-sky cameras

Abstract

This paper presents the software application ORION (All-sky camera geOmetry calibRation from star positIONs). This software has been developed with the aim of providing geometrical calibration to all-sky cameras, i.e. assess which sky coordinates (zenith and azimuth angles) correspond to each camera pixel. It is useful to locate bodies over the celestial vault, like stars and planets, in the camera images. The user needs to feed ORION with a set of cloud-free sky images captured at night-time for obtaining the calibration matrices. ORION searches the position of various stars in the sky images. This search can be automatic or manual. The sky coordinates of the stars and the corresponding pixel positions in the camera images are used together to determine the calibration matrices. The calibration is based on three parameters: the pixel position of the sky zenith in the image; the shift angle of the azimuth viewed by the camera with respect to the real North; and the relationship between the sky zenith angle and the pixel radial distance regards to the sky zenith in the image. In addition, ORION includes other features to facilitate its use, such as the check of the accuracy of the calibration. An example of ORION application is shown, obtaining the calibration matrices for a set of images and studying the accuracy of the calibration to predict a star position. Accuracy is about 9.0 arcmin for the analyzed example using a camera with average resolution of 5.4 arcmin/pixel (about 1.7 pixels).