New confirmation of image-processing techniques for astrometry of Saturn and its satellites

The image-processing techniques used by Peng et al. are further improved to measure precisely the positions of Saturn and its satellites. 495 CCD images taken with the 1-m telescope at the Yunnan Observatory during the years 2002–2004 are processed with these techniques. These measured pixel positions are compared to their theoretical positions computed with the ephemerides of TASS1.7 for the satellites and JPL DE405 for Saturn itself. Analysis of the data for the intersatellite positions among four bright Saturnian satellites (S3–S6) and for Saturn–satellite (i.e. Saturn–Titan) positions shows that these measured positions have the same dispersions, i.e. about 0.05 and 0.06 arcsec in right ascension and declination, respectively. However, for the fainter satellites, Enceladus and Mimas, poorer residuals up to 0.1 and 0.2 arcsec, respectively, in both directions are found mainly due to their small separations from the primary planet and short exposure time in order to obtain useful images of Saturn.