PHOTOGRAPHIC ENHANCEMENT OF H-ALPHA FILMS

The appearance of Tech Pan film in sizes that were useful in large Sch midt telescopes immediately offered new opportunities and advantages t o users of Schmidt telescopes. Among the advantages were a spatial res olution that was well matched to the image quality produced by the opt ics of the telescope under the best conditions. For the first time suc h images were well sampled on Schmidt telescopes. Tech Pan was initial ly formulated by Eastman Kodak as a 35 mm solar patrol film designed t o have enhanced sensitivity around the 656.2 nm H alpha line. It is th is feature, combined with the excellent imaging characteristics, that we seek to exploit with the new UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) H alpha su rvey. This paper briefly reports some preliminary comparative tests of Tech Pan with the new H alpha filter at UKST and suggests ways in whi ch data from the new survey can be quickly exploited using advanced ph otographic techniques such as photographic amplification. This simple contact copying process rapidly reveals extended low surface brightnes s features that simple inspection cannot.