Appeal 2007-1087
Application 11/150,806
Gagnon discloses that based on the coordinates of a reference star and
a target star, an angle of separation is determined and used in an iterative
calculation to orient the telescope without any other input (col. 6, ll. 17-33).
Tracking a new object after orienting the telescope requires entering
the new coordinates which are used by the processor for calculating the
altitude and azimuth angles to which the telescope should be moved to (col.
6, ll. 54-59).
Bezooijen determines the attitude of a spacecraft using the stars in a
starfield (col. 1, ll. 46-58).
Bezooijen measures the intensities of the observed stars within the
starfield (col. 7, ll. 21-22) and forms star pairs based on their intensity and
angular separation (col. 7, ll. 54-55). The angular separation is shown in
Figure 1 as the angle between the center lines connecting the stars with the
detector (col. 6, ll. 58-61).
Bezooijen determines the position of the spacecraft by forming a
matrix of the match group and matching the results with the positions of
guide stars within the match group (col. 7, ll. 45-48).
PRINCIPLES OF LAW
A claimed invention is unpatentable as obvious “if the differences
between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such
that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the
invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said
subject matter pertains.” See 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) (2002); In re Dembiczak,
175 F.3d 994, 998, 50 USPQ2d 1614, 1616 (Fed. Cir. 1999).
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