How Many Pixels in an Image can be Collected Simultaneously and How Long Does it Take to Make a Measurement?

-- Earl | October 17, 2023

Question:

Image Data Collection Times

How many radio astronomy image pixels can be collected simultaneously? How long does it take to collect the data for each pixel? How long does it take to collect the data for an entire image? I suspect that there is quite a range of numbers for each of these questions, but a brief discussion would be interesting. Thanks.

-- Earl

Answer:

There is no solid upper-limit to the number of pixels that can be collected in a single image gathered with an astronomical telescope. Imaging sensors on both optical and radio telescopes can have upwards of many hundreds to thousands of individual pixels. The sensitivity of the images collected with these sensors are dependent upon the specific characteristics of the imaging system electronics and the telescope that is being used to make the images, which dictates how much time is needed to gather the measurements necessary to make an image. Integration times can be as short as a few seconds to minutes, and is often limited by aspects of an observation that are not part of the imaging system (such as changes in the Earth’s atmosphere during a measurement when using a ground-based telescope).

-- Jeff Mangum

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