High precision—automated celestial navigation system

A high precision, automated dual band celestial navigation system for marine vessels comprising;

• A) an above-deck dual-band sheared-aperture telescope mounted on a gyro-stabilized four-axis pointing platform, adapted to image satellites and nearby stars within fields of view of the telescope, both day and night and
• B) a dual-band optical system comprising:
• 1) a beam splitter adapted to separate light from the fields of view of the telescope into a visible light beam and a shortwave infrared beam,
• 2) a shortwave infrared camera adapted to record light from the shortwave infrared beam and to create images of stars within the telescope field of view, said shortwave infrared camera comprising:
• a) an adjustable shortwave shutter with controls adapted to automatically control the shutter speed and
• b) a shortwave infrared sensor;
• 3) a visible light camera adapted to collect light from the visible light beam and create images of satellites within the telescope field of view, said visible light camera comprising:
• a) a visible light shutter with controls adapted to automatically control the shutter speed and
• b) a visible light sensor;
• C) a processing unit adapted to function as a part of a position, navigation and timing (PNT) system, said processing unit comprising:
• 1) an inertial measurement unit and
• 2) a computer processing unit programmed with:
• a) an image processing algorithm,
• b) pointing algorithms,
• c) an Unscented Kalman filter,
• d) star and RSO catalogs,
• e) an all sky monitor algorithm,
• f) system control software, and interface software to the PNT system.