Information Efficiencies of Telescopes and their Instrumentation

Abstract

AbstractA criterion based upon information content allows one to obtain objective estimates of the efficiencies of astronomical observations for the whole system of light receiving and recording equipment, including the conditions of observation. The proposed method for calculating this information efficiency relies on the analysis of the output observational material and not on the characteristics of optical and electronic components of the instrumentation. The method is quite simple to use for comparison of different astronomical observations and instrumentation (Rylov, 1977, 1979; Karapetian and Oskanian, 1978).