ANALYSIS OF LUNAR OCCULTATIONS OF POINT-LIKE X-RAY SOURCES

In view of the scheduled satellite mission EXOSAT (European X-Ray Observatory Satellite) of ESA (European Space Agency) the lunar occultation technique to determine the position of point-like X-ray sources is investigated. In particular, this paper explores the accuracy of the determination of the starting and ending time of an occultation, both of which are directly related to the size of the resulting position error box. An attempt is made to calculate analytically the distribution function of the estimated starting time, and some corresponding numerical evaluations are given. Finally, it is shown by Monte Carlo simulations that a slightly modified X2-minimum method can be used to analyse the X-ray occultation data. © 1979 D. Reidel Publishing Co.