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Giga-Pixel Alert!

Posted on 17-06-2009

Yeah, that's right, GIGA-pixel, some people are already there yet while you boast around about your new 10MP camera. While you stare in awe at the textures and fine grained details of a 10MP image, Scientists at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii sit with their 1.4 GP camera mocking your every move. That's 1,400,000,000 pixel's for you! More than enough to capture the unwanted nose hair of a mosquito, sadly, this isn't what it'll be used for.

This telescope dubbed Pan-STRRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System) is being built "to discover and characterize Earth-approaching objects, both asteroids & comets, that might pose a danger to our planet."

The plan is to create four such devices, and each will be the largest digital cameras ever built. Each camera contains a 64x64 grid of CCDs of 600 pixels each to give the complete 1.4 billion pixel image.

Further according to the their website:

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"By combining relatively small mirrors with very large digital cameras we will be able to develop and deploy an economical observing system that will be able to observe the entire available sky several times each month."

Puts your whole 10MP ego in perspective doesn't it.