Image Processing and Analysis

When astronomers get their image data from a telescope or satellite, they want to make measurements in order to be able to do some science.

To do this, they use special computer software called Image Processing or Image Analysis software.

This software lets the astronomers take the huge grid of numbers that make up each image and turn them into one or two measurements such as the brightness of a star or the size of a galaxy.

They can also use the software to study the images in a lot of detail and find out much more about them than from just looking at a normal picture.

In the photograph you can see a student in a school using the special image processing software produced by the Schools' Observatory called LTImage.