Astrophotography: Proceedings of the IAU Workshop, Jena, GDR, April 21–24,1987

246 Pages·1988·14.07 MB·English

by  D. Malin (auth.)

Astrophotography
Astrophotography
Proceedings of the IAU Workshop,
Jena, GOR, April 21-24, 1987
Editor: S. Marx
With 125 Figures
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
London Paris Tokyo
Professor Dr. Siegfried Marx
Zentralinstitut fOr Astrophysik der Akademie der Wissenschaften der OOR,
Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium, OOR-6901 Tautenburg, GOR
ISBN-13:978-3-642-83270-3 e-ISBN-13:978-3-642-83268-0
001: 10.1007/978-3-642-83268-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data. IAU Workshop (1987: Jena, Germany) Astrophoto
graphy: proceedings ofthe IAU Workshop, Jena, GDR, April 21-24, 1987/ editor, S. Marx. Includes index. 1.
Astronomical photography - Congresses. I. Marx, Siegfried, 1934-. II. International Astonomical Union. III.
Title.QB121.118 1987 522'.63-dc19 87-36918
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Preface
This volume contains the proceedings of the workshop "Astrophotography
87", which was held in Jena, April 21-24, 1987. The workshop was organized
by the Central Institute of Astrophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the
German Democratic Republic and is the latest in a series devoted to the
problems of photography in astronomy. The previous workshops, which have
taken place every three years, were held in Edinburgh (1984), Nice (1981)
and Geneva (1978).
For telescopes with large fields of view, in particular Schmidt telescopes,
photographic plates are the only suitable radiation receiver. Thus the effi
ciency of the photographic plate determines the quality of the observation.
The treatment of the plates in the photographic laboratory is also very im
portant. Additional factors affecting the scientific results are the measuring
machines and the methods of interpretation. All these topics were discussed
in the workshop by the 62 participants (26 from the GDR and 36 from 13
other countries.
Thanks go to David Malin, the chairman of the working group "Astropho
tography" of the International Astronomical Union, for writing an introduc
tory article for the proceedings. I am grateful to all participants who pre
sented papers during the workshop for sending in their manuscripts on time.
Poster papers are arranged among the other papers according to the topics
they treat. All participants also wish to express their thanks to Springer
Verlag for publishing the proceedings.
s.
Tautenburg, DDR Marx
August 1987
Contents
Part I Review of Astronomical Photography
The Age of the Specialist in Astronomical Photography
By D. Malin (With 2 Figures) ............................ 2
Part II Photographic Emulsions
Stages of Photographic Development
By R Budell (With 13 Figures) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Microspots on Spectroscopic Emulsions - An Update
By A.R Good (With 3 Figures) .......................... 28
Automatic Grid Processing of Large Photographic Plates
By B. Dumoulin, J. Quebatte, and RM. West (With 3 Figures) 34
Astronomical Tests of FAE Processing
By R Ziener (With 2 Figures) ........................ . . . . 38
Part III Hypersensitization
Hypersensitization of Kodalc IN Emulsions at the Rozhen National
Astronomical Observatory. By V. Tsintsarov, Ts. Georgiev,
M. Tsvetkov, B.Zh. Kovatchev, and M. Panov (With 3 Figures) 42
Hydrogen Hypering at Tesca
By J.-L. Heudier, C. Labeyrie, and T. Laverge (With 2 Figures) 47
Temperature Influence on Hydrogen Treatment of Kodak IIa-O and
l03a-O Plates. By O. Zichova, J. Zicha, V.I. Tsintsarov, L.Kh. Iliev,
and Ts.B. Georgiev (With 5 Figures) ....................... 49
Spectral Sensitivities of Hypersensitized Emulsions
By T. Aoki and T. Watanabe (With 4 Figures) ............... 56
Desensitization of Hypersensitized IIIa-J Plates by Exposure to
Ambient Air. By D. Engels and K.P. Schroder (With 1 Figure) .... 61
VII
Part IV Calibration and Sensitometry
Fitting Procedures for the Characteristic Curve
By H. Lehmann and W. Haupl (With 6 Figures) 64
Calibration Problems on Schmidt Plates
By R. Ziener (With 2 Figures) ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
New Emulsions and Sensitometry. By A. Maury (With 2 Figures) 71
Internal Calibration of Stellar Magnitudes
By D. Homberg (With 3 Figures) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
A Physically Founded Analytical Representation of the Characteristic
Curve. By E. Gerth (With 2 Figures) ...................... 83
Photographic Calibration of Sunspot Equidensitograms
By 1. Guman ........................................ 91
On the Adaptive Procedure of Brightness Evaluation from the
Characteristic Curves. By 1.L. Andronov (With 2 Figures) ....... 92
Part V Photographic Techniques
A Two-Stage Masking Technique for Revealing High-Density Features
in Astronomical Photographic Plates
By J. Quebatte and B. Dumoulin (With 5 Figures) ............ 98
Atlas Copying On-Film. By H. Zodet (With 5 Figures) . . . . . . . . .. 105
Identification and Elimination of Plate Flaws in Copying
By W.J. Roberton and S.B. Tritton (With 5 Figures) ........... 116
On the Employment of Copies in Astrophotography. By E. Gerth .. 121
The Superimposition of Many Plates
By D. Malin (With 3 Figures) ............................ 125
A Special Method of Transferring Information on the Basis of Inner-
Picture Development. By W. Hogner (With 2 Figures) .......... 133
General Properties of Kodak Plates Used in Astronomy
By J.-L. Heudier, C. Labeyrie, T. Laverge, P. Pariyski, G. Sirand-Rey,
and G. Travot (With 4 Figures) ........................... 135
Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey - Photographic Procedures
By A. Maury ........................................ 140
Part VI Measurement and Reduction
A New XY Measuring Machine
By T. Noguchi and T. Soyano (With 4 Figures) 146
VIII
Planning an Autofocus System for PDS-Microdensitometers
By M. Hiesgen (With 7 Figures) .......................... 149
The ASAG Program Package for Image Processing. By G.M. Richter 155
Photometric Accuracy of an Adaptive Filtering Technique
By M. Capaccioli, H. Lorenz, and G.M. Richter (With 6 Figures) .. 157
Two Digital Filtering Methods and the Spiral Structure of the M 31
Galaxy. By T.B. Georgiev (With 5 Figures) .................. 162
Spectral Classification at Low Dispersion. By W.C. Seitter ....... 169
Fast Astrometric Reduction at Tesca. By J.-L. Heudier 173
Astrometric Accuracy on Tautenburg Schmidt Plates
By W.R. Dick, E. Schilbach, and R.-D. Scholz ................ 178
Astrometry on Tautenburg Schmidt Plates for Improvement of the
Astronomical Reference Frame
By C. Witschas, D. Bohme, and H. Sefkow .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 182
Part VII Astronomical Applications
Automated Detection of Large-Scale Structures in Space I: Reduction
of Direct Schmidt-Plates. By H. Horstmann (With 5 Figures) ..... 186
Automated Detection of Large-Scale Structures in Space II: Redshift
Measurements. By P. Schiicker (With 2 Figures) .............. 192
Automated Detection of Large-Scale Structures in Space III: A Search
for Quasars
By V. Gericke, P. Schiicker, and W.C. Seitter (With 2 Figures) 198
Stellar Photometry with Schmidt Plates
By V. Mohan and M. Creze (With 7 Figures) ................. 201
The Accuracy of Photographic Photometry of Stars
By O.D. Dokuchaeva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 209
A Deep High Resolution Wide Field Survey of the Milky Way
By C. Madsen (With 1 Figure) ........................... 210
Some Results of the Faint Asteroid Search in Tautenburg
By F. Borngen (With 2 Figures) .......................... 217
The Plate Collection of Sonneberg Observatory
By W. Gotz (With 1 Figure) ............................. 223
Project for the Photometry of Clusters of Galaxies
By F.W. Baier and R. Ziener (With 1 Figure) ................ 226
The Discovery of a Proto-Spiral Galaxy
By D. Malin, G.D. Bothun, and C.D. Impey (With 3 Figures) ..... 230
IX
Recent Photographic Work with the U.K. Schmidt Telescope
By C.M. Humphries and D.H. Morgan .................. . . .. 234
Present Status of the Kiso Observatory. By K. Ishida ...... . . . .. 239
Index of Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 241
x
Part I
Review of Astronomical Photography
The Age of the Specialist
in Astronomical Photography
D. Malin
All~lo-Australiall Observatory, P.O. Box 296,
Eppill~, NSW 2121, Australia
Introduction
The age of specialisation has arrived in astronomical photography. While this has
long been happening, it is now more-or-Iess complete, with most of the world's
large observatories which use photography offering it as an in-house service rather
than a visitor facility.
In this articl~ I will review from a personal perspective the changes which have
taken place in the practice of astronomical photography in the last decade and
highlight by means of references the developments which I believe have turned
astronomical photography from the ubiquitous mainstay of most observatories
into a sophisticated imaging system requiring special skills and facilities.
Since I have been personally involved with the Service Observing Program at
the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and have been closely associated with
the UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST), which has always operated in that mode, I
will take this opportunity to examine in some detail the systems of photography
which have evolved at these institutions. These changes have occurred largely
as the result of the introduction of new photographic emulsions which demand
new levels of skill at all stages of preparation, observation. processing and data
reduction.
The Evolution of Astronomical Photography
While at first glance the photographic plate fares badly when compared with
other two-dimensional imaging devices such as the CCD, in fact these detectors
are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. (See Furenlid 1984 for a
detailed discussion) The relatively low quantum efficiency of the photographic
emulsion is offset by its almost unlimited useable area, its lack of linearity by ease
of use. The photographic plate is also a permanent, inexpensive and remarkably
compact storage medium which does not require a powerful computer for an
initial look at the data. However, this advantage is largely offset by the almost
instantaneous read-out capability of the CCD. Other important characteristics
of the photographic plate are its extreme uniformity over considerable areas and
its excellent spatial resolution. These properties can be exploited to advantage
with special image enhancement techniques for the detection of faint objects.
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