Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T19:57:31.668Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Use of Kodak Tech-Pan Film at the Ukstu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Q.A. Parker
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping NSW 2121, Australia
S. Phillipps
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wales College of Cardiff, Wales
D.H. Morgan
Affiliation:
Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, Scotland
D.F. Malin
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping NSW 2121, Australia
K.S. Russell
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping NSW 2121, Australia
M. Hartley
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping NSW 2121, Australia
A. Savage
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping NSW 2121, Australia

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Kodak Technical Pan (Tech Pan) emulsion is an extremely fine grained, high resolution, panchromatic negative film with extended red sensitivity. It has been produced under this name since about 1980 (Kodak P–255, 1981) and is available on Kodak's Estar base in a number of thicknesses and sizes. The thick ∗∗base Tech Pan is designated 4415 and has been used with great success by the amateur astronomical community for many years (e.g. Martys 1991). Its astronomical potential was recognised early by Everhart (1981). However, tests at professional telescopes (e.g. West et al. 1981) and early sensitometer tests at the UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) in 1981 and 1987 were discontinued when the glass and film samples did not respond well to normal hypersensitisation techniques. These and other difficulties led to a lack of interest among the professional astronomical community until quite recently (Russell et al. 1992; Parker & Malin 1992). The first successful use of 14 × 14 inch hypered Tech-Pan 4415 film in the UKST was in March 1991. Films were obtained which exhibited excellent image quality and resolution. Furthermore, in good seeing these appeared to be about 1 magnitude deeper than the equivalent IIIa-F emulsion on glass but with considerably lower grain noise. This result was achieved because two main problems associated with Tech-Pan and film use in the UKST have been resolved. These were:

  1. 1) obtaining Tech-Pan film with long exposure speed sufficient for deep astronomical photography (i.e. reduction of low intenstiy reciprocity failure);

  2. 2) overcoming the practical difficulties of mounting large-format flexible film at the UKST's curved focal surface.

Type
Part Three: Photography in Wide-Field Imaging
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1994 

References

Cannon, R.D., 1984. In ‘Astronomical Photography’, Occasional Reports of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, eds. Sim, M.E. and Ishida, K., p. 119.Google Scholar
Evans, D.W., 1993. IAU Commission No. 9, Working Group on Wide-field Imaging, Newsletter No. 3, p. 64.Google Scholar
Everhart, E., 1981. In ‘Astronomical Photography’, Occasional Reports of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, eds. Heudier, J.L. and Sim, M.E., p. 117.Google Scholar
van Haarlem, M.P., le Poole, R.S., Katgert, P. and Tritton, S., 1992. Mon. Not. R. astron. Soc., 255, 295.Google Scholar
Hawkins, M.R.S., 1992. IAU Commission No. 9, Working Group on Wide-field Imaging, Newsletter No. 1, p. 23.Google Scholar
Kodak Publication Q 34, 1970. ‘Dimensional Stability of KODAK Estar Base Films for the Graphic Arts’.Google Scholar
Kodak Publication P-255, 1981. ‘KODAK Technical Pan Film’.Google Scholar
Kodak Publication P-315, 1987. ‘Scientific Imaging with KODAK films and plates’.Google Scholar
MacGillivray, H.T. and Stobie, R.S., 1984. Vistas in Astronomy, 27, 433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malin, D.F., 1981. J. Photogr. Sci., 21, 199.Google Scholar
Marston, A.P., 1988. Mon. Not. R. astron. Soc., 255, 295.Google Scholar
Martys, C.R., 1991. J. Br. Astron. Assoc., 101, 4.Google Scholar
Miller, L., Cormack, W., Paterson, M.J., Beard, S.M and Lawrence, L., 1992. In ‘Digitised Optical Sky Surveys’, eds. MacGillivray, H.T. and Thomson, E.B., Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, p. 133.Google Scholar
Parker, Q.A., 1992. ‘Report on Kodak Tech Pan 4415 Estar-based emulsion’, AAO internal document.Google Scholar
Parker, Q.A. and Malin, D.F., 1992. ‘Recent experience with Kodak Tech-Pan film’, in IAU Commission No. 9, Working Group on Wide-field Imaging Newsletter No. 2, p. 24.Google Scholar
Parker, Q.A., Morgan, D.H. and Phillipps, S., 1993. ‘Tech Pan UKST films: Some preliminary COSMOS data comparisons’, in IAU Commission No. 9, Working Group on Wide-field Imaging Newsletter No. 3, p. 60.Google Scholar
Phillipps, S. and Parker, Q.A., 1992. ‘Photometry with Estar film’, in IAU Commission No. 9, Working Group on Wide-field Imaging Newsletter No. 1, p. 29.Google Scholar
Phillipps, S. and Parker, Q.A., 1993. ‘Galaxy surface Photometry with Kodak Tech Pan film’, Mon. Not. R. astron. Soc., 265, 385.Google Scholar
Russell, K.S., Malin, D.F., Savage, A., Hartley, M. and Parker, Q.A., 1992. ‘The use of Eastman Kodak 4415 film in the UKST’, in ‘Digitised Optical Sky Surveys’, eds. MacGillivray, H.T. and Thomson, E.B., Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, p. 23.Google Scholar
West, R.M., Kurtanidze, O.M., Geonijan, L.A. and Kimeridze, G.N., 1981. AAS Photo-Bulletin, No. 28, p. 3.Google Scholar