1. A method for estimating an attitude of an object, the method comprising: compressively sampling starfield image data representing a first view of a starfield as seen from an object to create a first compressed sample, the compressive sampling of the starfield image data representing the first view comprising summing a number of light pixels in at least a portion of the first view image data; compressively sampling starfield image data representing a second view of the starfield as seen from the object to create a second compressed sample, the compressive sampling of the starfield image data representing the second view comprising summing a number of light pixels in at least a portion of the second view image data, the first and second views differing by a known displacement and the second compressed sample being offset by the known displacement; eliminating noise common to the first and second views by comparing, in a compressed domain, the first and second compressed samples, thereby creating an improved quality sample; and employing the improved quality sample to estimate an attitude of the object.