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Astrometric positions of the Neptunian satellite Triton with a visual magnitude of 13.5 were obtained during three successive oppositions in 2007, 2008 and 2009. A total of 1095 new observed positions of Triton were collected during 46 nights of observations, involving eight missions and three telescopes. We compared our observations to the best ephemerides of Triton available now. This comparison has shown that our observations present a high level of accuracy as they provide standard deviations of residuals hardly higher than 50 mas and mean residuals lower than 30 mas, corresponding to about only 500 km in the position of the very distant satellite Triton. Moreover, we have compared most of the different planetary ephemerides of Neptune available now as well as two recent orbit models of Triton. These new comparisons have clearly shown the differences between all of these ephemerides which can be significant and that are presented in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we used the 3108 Earth-based astrometric observations from the Natural Satellite Data Center over more than 30 yr time span from 1975 to 2006 for determining the epoch state vectors of the Neptunian largest satellite Triton. These observations almost contain all modern photo and CCD observations available. In integrating perturbation equation, the barycentric frame of Neptune–Triton system is adopted, and in considering the oblateness perturbation due to Neptune, a revised pole model describing the precession of the Neptune's pole is used in our calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Astrometric positions of the Neptunian Satellite Triton are given for the opposition of Neptune for the years 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2006. The 943 observed positions were obtained at the Cassegrain focus of a 156-cm reflector. In our reduction, the up-to-date catalogue of stars UCAC2 was chosen to ensure a proper astrometric calibration. Our observed positions are compared to theoretical positions provided from JPL and IMCCE ephemerides. The observed minus calculated residuals have s.d. values of the order of 0.04 arcsec. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The optical counterparts of 23 extragalactic radio sources, of which 13 are in the southern hemisphere, have been observed by three telescopes equipped with CCDs. By reference to the Astrographic/Tycho (ACT) Reference, Carlsberg Meridian (CMC), Positions and Proper Motions (PPM), Hipparcos (HIP) and Lick Northern Proper Motion (NPM) catalogues, the positions of the 23 objects have been obtained. The mean standard errors in right ascension and declination are better than 0.2 arcsec. The differences from the radio positions are given, and a comparison between our results and those of other studies is also made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polynomial-fit method is applied to remove the uneven background of a satellite when it is near a bright primary object. Detailed analysis of this method is given. Some useful conclusions are drawn from the results of simulated data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on our observing campaign of faint satellites performed at the National Time Service Center and Sheshan station of SHAO from 1994 up to today. In the past few years due to benefit from using a large size CCD and the publication of the modern catalogues (UCAC2), a series of observations of faint satellites were obtained by us. Moreover the work of improving the orbit of Phoebe via numerical fit to the observations over a century is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]