Environmental Factors in Airborne Photography

High-altitude flying observatories for astronomical observations offer advantages over ground-based observatories. The effects of atmospheric attenuation, sky background brightness, and astronomical “seeing” on astronomical observing are reduced. Weather problems are reduced or eliminated. Long-range jet aircraft have easy access to remote locations. Observation problems are, however, accentuated in the flying observatory. Instruments must be designed for aircraft safety requirements. Navigation becomes increasingly important to optimum observing conditions. Windows or viewing ports must be suited for aircraft. Window surfaces, both external and internal, require protection from dirt, oil, fogging or icing and resultant light scattering. Since boundary layer turbulence affects the light path, airfoil configurations in the viewing port area have to be considered. Vibration of the optical instrument can seriously degrade image quality, creating special vibration isolation problems. With increased resolution and exposure time the stability of the aircraft becomes insufficient, making necessary an image stabilization system. These factors are evaluated.

Print ISSN

0361-4573

Published

1967-07

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J09145