Exploring Methods of Effective Data Display in an Interactive Astronomical Data-processing Environment

Extract

Many of the image restoration algorithms discussed during these past days work best on fields which are virtually empty except for a few discrete sources. But the sky also has faint regions of extended emission; these regions invariably turn out to be of great astrophysical interest and must be represented as accurately as possible in the maps. The methods chosen to present the data in pictorial form can have an important effect on the speed and efficacity with which the astronomer can extract the useful information. I would be afraid of boring all of you with this discussion of display methods if I did not know that, besides being well versed in subjects of probability, statistics, and applied mathematics (and in some cases philosophies and polemics), you are also astronomers with a strong motivation to sift out of your data the useful information on the physics of cosmic radio sources, and to do it in the most efficient way possible.