New method for reduction of astrolabe observations using rectangular coordinates on the celestial sphere

Abstract

A new reduction method usingx, y, z-coordinates is derived for astrolabe observations. By this method, the latitude and the longitude of the station are computed without the need of a priori knowledge of the station position. This method is a significant development in data reduction of astrolabe and other almucantar observations due to its mathematical exactness, simplicity, and the ease of handling the associated statistics.