RPS Imaging Science Group

The other imaging interest to this story is the amount of image science present in the wide variety of telescopes presently in orbit. Setting aside the high profile (and expense) units like the Hubble Space Telescope there are a large number of earth observing units in use. Because resolution is a function of aperture and launch weight (and therefore cost) is a function of the mass of the primary optic there is a lot of emphasis on the use of sparse apertures in these units. The image science of these is fascinating and it was my pleasure to catch up with progress in this field at the 2006 International Congress of Imaging Science meeting where Robert Fiete of ITT Space Systems presented a paper on this – see http://www.imaging.org/store/epub.cfm?abstrid=33811. They use mirrors with the centres removed or arrays of smaller optics to get resolution without weight but at the expense of some rather odd looking MTF curves. When I get the time I want to build a test unit as it would be fun for my interest in using telescopes for terrestrial imaging. See http://www.rps-isg.org/GP2007/hodgson/telescopes.pdf for some results I presented at a past Imaging Science Group Good Picture event.