Interactive installation - Stacking
By using a light table and transparent sheets, visitors can personally experience the "image stacking" technique commonly used in astrophotography to reduce noise, and understand the relationship between alignment accuracy and image clarity.
Place several transparent images on the light table one by one, and carefully align them according to the positions of the stars. When the same object is aligned accurately, its signal adds up and becomes brighter, while misaligned noise is averaged out and reduced. In the end, a combined image with less noise and clearer details is produced.
This interactive display demonstrates the concept of improving the signal-to-noise ratio, which matches the real workflow of astronomical image processing.
Step 1: Take several slides you want to observe from the storage area and place them on the light table.
Step 2: Adjust the angle of the slides to align them. This helps you understand how alignment accuracy affects image clarity.