Interactive Image Analysis for Astronomers

Abstract

During the last five years, ground-based astronomers have seeh some remarkable changes in the image data available to us for scientific analysis. Our image intensifiers have been greatly improved, and new photographic emulsions (Kodak IIIa-J and IIIa-F) with higher detective quantum efficiency and greater storage capacity have been introduced. Precise microdensitometers with digital output and adequate speed have become commercially available, so that we are now able to convert essentially all of the information from a photographic emnulsion into digital form. Integrating digital television cameras and silicon diode arrays with excellent sensitivity and good cosmetic quality are now replacing photographic plates in many ground-based astronomical observations. Meanwhile, radio astronomers have devised their own scheme–aperture synthesis–for recording radio-wavelength digital pictures of the sky. But improvements in digital image-handling technology are needed if we are to fully exploit the scientific research possibilities created by these new detector systems. One step in this direction is the Interactive Picture Processing System (IPPS) developed at the Kitt Peak National Observatory.