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Method of automatically tracking and photographing celestial objects, and camera employing this method

  • US 9,509,920 B2
  • Filed: 04/27/2011
  • Issued: 11/29/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of automatically tracking and photographing a celestial object which moves relative to a photographic apparatus due to diurnal motion so that a celestial object image, which is formed on an imaging surface of an image pickup device via a photographing optical system, becomes stationary relative to a predetermined imaging area of said imaging surface of said image pickup device during a tracking and photographing operation, said method comprising:

  • inputting, latitude information at a photographic site, photographing azimuth angle information, photographing elevation angle information, attitude information of said photographic apparatus via a sensor, and focal length information of said photographing optical system;

    calculating movement amounts of said celestial object image relative to said photographic apparatus for fixing said celestial object image with respect to said predetermined imaging area of said image pickup device, using all of the input information; and

    obtaining a photographic image by moving, after start of a shutter release operation, at least one of said predetermined imaging area and said celestial object image based on said calculated relative movement amounts,wherein the attitude information of the photographic apparatus includes rotational angle information which indicates a rotational angle, about the optical axis of the photographing optical system, of one of the photographic apparatus and the image pickup device.

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