NAROO program: Analysis of USNO Galilean observations 1967–1998

Abstract

The New Astrometric Reduction of Old Observations (NAROO) program is dedicated to the measurement of astrophotographic plates and the analysis of old observations for scientific purposes. One of the main objectives of the NAROO program is to provide accurate positional measurements of planets and satellites to improve our knowledge of their orbits and dynamics, and to infer the accuracy of the planet and satellite ephemerides. We digitized 553 astronegatives of the Galilean satellites taken with the McCormick 26-inch refractor in 1967/68 and the U.S. Naval Observatory 26-inch refractor from 1973 to 1998, resulting in 2650 individual observations. We measured and reduced these observations through an optimal process that includes image, instrumental, and spherical corrections using Gaia-DR3 catalog to provide the most accurate equatorial (RA, Dec) ICRS (Gaia-CRF3) positions. 4819 positions of the Galilean satellites have been determined with an accuracy of 55 mas (160 km at Jupiter), near the limit of the photographic technique for such work. These data can help to improve the equatorial positions of Jupiter. They also can be used in the context of quantifying tidal effects and will still be useful when Europa Clipper and Juice data will become available.