The geometric calibration of the Planck satellite using point-source observations

The geometric calibration of the Planck satellite is investigated, specifically those parameters which require the use of the science data for their extraction. Methods for the recovery of these geometric-calibration parameters from point-source detections in the science data are presented, together with the accuracies which may be achieved. These methods apply to the a posteriori evaluation of these parameters using all the mission data, and may be incorporated into the initial stages of the construction of the Planck final compact source catalogue. It is found that this process achieves the pointing requirements, provided that the geometric-calibration parameters vary only slowly in time. Indeed the errors in the pointing reconstruction due to the geometric-calibration parameters may be seen to approach those due to the star tracker.