Re: ATM Webcams

["Bob May" <bobmay@nethere.com>]

The QCUIAG website does have a number of imager sizes, etc. but I haven't
looked at it for a while.  Then there's always looking at the manufacturer's
websites for the image size.  Generally, the chips are spec'ed with the
pixel size, x and y pixels and that's enough to produce a physical size of
the sensor.
Imaging 40deg. of sky will produce star images that are a fair bit smaller
than a pixel so you will be wanting a larger array in B&W but you then run
into the problem of downloading the larger array.  I would also consider the
10ms cycle time to be a bit on the short side as mechanical effects of a RPV
(I assume this is for a RPV as a manned craft would be a bit more risky)
won't happen anywhere that fast unless it's a stunt plane.  I also wouldn't
consider this as a sole guidance method unless you plan on very high
altitude flight (over 40Kft. or even more) as clouds will cover over the
stars very easily.
You will also want to make two different procedures for detecting stars -
one by day and two by night.  Daytime has the problem of low contrast while
night has variable background problems.
The military has done work on startracking with aircraft and missles and you
might want to peruse the literature about the things that they have done.
I've seen work in the SPIE magazine amongst other places.
All in all, good luck!
Bob May
http://nav.to/bobmay
bobmay@nethere.com