Onics and the New Astronomy

In 1964 a panel concerned with astronomical facilities prepared a report for the National Academy of Sciences covering a ten-year program for groundbased astronomy. This report emphasized the shortage of ground-based optical facilities and projected the increasing inadequacy of observing resources. I t also pointed out the urgency of improving the operating effectiveness of the telescopes in existence. For the past three years the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories Astro-Electronics Laboratory has undertaken an electronic instrumentation program to achieve these goals. We began with a summary of some aspects of the relationship between optical ground-based astronomy and space astronomy. These two sources of information about extraterrestrial objects can supplement each other only if the ground-based telescopes are equipped to operate at the most advanced levels of technology. If we turn to space astronomy for data which we are not able to get from ground-based telescopes only because we have failed to develop new techniques, we are in an economically indefensible position and will have subjected our space experiments to a somewhat greater possibility of failure. By testing new techniques on the ground-based telescopes we gain experience from which we can further develop space experiments and hardware. In June 1964 Ira S. Bowen, at that time director of the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, analyzed the relationship between telescope apertures, exposure times, auxiliary instruments, and the efficiency of any given telescope for meas-