Gains Realized with Electronic Observing and Measuring Instruments at the Hale Observatories

Extract

During recent years it has often been stated that the introduction of automatic electronic equipment can provide two benefits for the astronomical observer. The first is that he can make observations which he could not make with older methods. The second is that he can do the same job more rapidly, more thoroughly, and more efficiently than he had been able to do previously. The first benefit has obviously been realized with many pieces of equipment and I will not concentrate on this point. The second has been a very real one also, and I would like to report on some of the gains which have been made at the Hale Observatories by the introduction of modern electronic equipment. Because of the power which can be brought to bear on astronomical observing problems by the use of digital electronic techniques, almost all of the equipment which I will describe is in one way or another digital in nature.