E.B. Thomson – författare

The importance of wide-field imaging in astronomy has never been so evident. The deep photographic surveys of the sky are nearing completion. The advent of large-format solid state detectors will provide further deep digital sky survey data. Optical surveys of the sky are being complemented by surveys in other wavebands of the electromagnetic spectrum, principally in the X-ray and near-infrared. The mass of digital data being gathered is driving the need for mass-storage archival capability, and for rapid capabilities in data acquisitioning and processing. New techniques are being developed to optimize the extraction of the information content. The quality and quantity of data now available to astronomers are enabling new breakthroughs in many fields, such as studies of the structure of our own galaxy and properties of nearby galaxies, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and the nature of the mass-content of the Universe. These facets of wide-field astronomy are brought together in this book.

The importance of wide-field imaging in astronomy has never been so evident. The deep photographic surveys of the sky are nearing completion. The advent of large-format solid state detectors will provide further deep digital sky survey data. Optical surveys of the sky are being complemented by surveys in other wavebands of the electromagnetic spectrum, principally in the X-ray and near-infrared. The mass of digital data being gathered is driving the need for mass-storage archival capability, and for rapid capabilities in data acquisitioning and processing. New techniques are being developed to optimize the extraction of the information content. The quality and quantity of data now available to astronomers are enabling new breakthroughs in many fields, such as studies of the structure of our own galaxy and properties of nearby galaxies, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and the nature of the mass-content of the Universe. These facets of wide-field astronomy are brought together in this book.

Astronomical photographs contain an enormous amount of information. This presents extremely interesting problems when one wishes to produce digitised sky atlases, to archive the digitised material, to develop sophisticated devices to do the digitising, and to create software to procecc the vast amounts of data. All these activities are necessary to be able to do astronomy. One such activity is the important, large-scale optical identification of objects which also emit radiation at other wavelengths. Other activities of the past decade include a multiplicity of surveys that have been made on galaxies and clusters of galaxies. This book treats, in five sections, the existing and future surveys, their digitisation and their impact on astronomy. It is a reference for people in the field and for those who wish to engage in using or producing sky surveys.

H.T. MacGilLIVRAY Royal Observatory Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ Scotland U.K. lAU Symposium No. 161 on ''Astronomy from Wide-Field Imaging'', held in Potsdam, Germany, during 23-27th August 1993, was the first conference organised by the recently-formed Working Group of lAU Commission 9 on ''Wide-Field Imaging''. This Working Group was instigated during the XXIst meeting of the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Buenos Aires in 1991, and represented a merging of the former formal lAU Working Group on ''Astronomical Photography'' and the informal ''Digitised Optical Sky Surveys'' Working Group. Dr. Richard West was ''invited'' to be Chairperson, and hence was given the daunting task of organising the Group from scratch. The very fact that the first conference after only two years was a major lAU Symposium says much about the determination and enthusiasm of Richard West to fulfilling the aims of the new Working Group. The siting of the conference in Potsdam in formerly East Germany provided an excellent opportunity to advantage from the political changes in Eastern Europe. Good access to the meeting was possible by scientists from Eastern European countries, allowing exchange of information on the very important Wide-Field facilities in both East and West, information on the rich archives of photographic plates that exist in both East and West, and allowing discussions between scientists facing very similar problems in both East and West.