Astrophotography: Proceedings of the Iau Workshop, Jena, GDR, April 21-24, 1987 - Hardcover

This volume contains the proceedings of the workshop "Astrophotography 87", which was held in Jena, April 21-24, 1987. The workshop was organized by the Central Institute of Astrophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic and is the latest in a series devoted to the problems of photography in astronomy. The previous workshops, which have taken place every three years, were held in Edinburgh (1984), Nice (1981) and Geneva (1978). For telescopes with large fields of view, in particular Schmidt telescopes, photographic plates are the only suitable radiation receiver. Thus the effi­ ciency of the photographic plate determines the quality of the observation. The treatment of the plates in the photographic laboratory is also very im­ portant. Additional factors affecting the scientific results are the measuring machines and the methods of interpretation. All these topics were discussed in the workshop by the 62 participants (26 from the GDR and 36 from 13 other countries. Thanks go to David Malin, the chairman of the working group "Astropho­ tography" of the International Astronomical Union, for writing an introduc­ tory article for the proceedings. I am grateful to all participants who pre­ sented papers during the workshop for sending in their manuscripts on time. Poster papers are arranged among the other papers according to the topics they treat. All participants also wish to express their thanks to Springer­ Verlag for publishing the proceedings.

This book gives an informative and practical survey of today's topics in astrophotography, both its new experimental developments and its results. Based on the contributions to the international IAU workshop "Astrophotography" held in Jena in 1987, the various chapters deal with photoemulsions used in astrophotography, hypersensitization, calibration problems, the processing and use of astronomical photographs, and results of astrophotographical observations. This book is not only an indispensable addition to the libraries of astronomical observatories and institutes, but also contains interesting information for the ambitious amateur astrophotographer.