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ROSAT Coordinate System

    

[Hasinger1986, Hasinger1990a]

   figure2023
Figure 2.8: The ROSAT spacecraft coordinate frame. This virtual right-handed frame is fixed to the spacecraft and the tex2html_wrap_inline16679 axis is aligned with the optical axis of the XRT in the pointing direction, while the tex2html_wrap_inline16681 axis is perpendicular to the solar panels in the anti-sun direction [Hasinger1990a].

The aspect solution for a given observation is referenced to the ROSAT (S/C) cartesian coordinate system ( tex2html_wrap_inline16683 ).  This virtual right-handed frame is fixed to the S/C (Fig. 2.8) with the tex2html_wrap_inline16685 -axis aligned with the optical axis of the XRT (and parallel to that of the WFC) in the pointing direction, and the tex2html_wrap_inline16687 -axis perpendicular to the solar panels in the anti-Sun direction. In orbit, the ROSAT coordinate system is defined by the GSOC attitude solution derived from the measurement of stars in the star tracker FOV\ (Sect. 1.2.5).



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