The KPNO Digital Television Acquisition Processor

Peter R. Vokac

doi:10.1117/12.957103

3 May 1979 The KPNO Digital Television Acquisition Processor

Peter R. Vokac

Proceedings Volume 0172, Instrumentation in Astronomy III; (1979) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.957103
Event: Instrumentation in Astronomy, 1979, Tucson, United States

Abstract

Sky limit performance of an intensified detector acquisition system is degraded by noise that significantly exceeds the minimum detectable signal level. A digital television acquisition processor has been developed at Kitt Peak National Observatory to attenuate the noise by frame-to-frame integration and to enhance the contrast through an arithmetic mapping function. Recent experience at the 4M Mayall Telescope indicates that the new real-time Digital Processor will extend the useful range of RCA ISIT detectors by four stellar magnitudes. During the course of project development two important design principles were rediscovered: 1) Integration will improve an image if and only if the detector system generates frame-to frame pixel differences. 2) When a pixel in a stable image is perturbed by frame-to-frame spectral noise, the effective sampling frequency cannot exceed the Nyquist sampling frequency of the most significant noise component. In other words, the maximum √N signal-to-noise improvement factor depends upon the frequency of the frame-to-frame noise, not upon the fastest possible readout frame rate.

Citation Download Citation

Peter R. Vokac "The KPNO Digital Television Acquisition Processor", Proc. SPIE 0172, Instrumentation in Astronomy III, (3 May 1979); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.957103

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