DETERMINING LOCATIONS OF UNKNOWN SITES FOR ASTRONOMICAL PURPOSES

An important problem for an astronomical research program is examined for observers traveling to poorly mapped areas to monitor rare phenome na such as solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and occultations but who re quire accurate knowledge of the geodetic coordinates of observing site s for which true locations are not known. This study uses commercial o ff-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software to address the problem and p rovides guidelines for determination of ground truth by utilization of the hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers.