Imaging & Spectroscopy

Neuromorphic Cameras in Astronomy: Unveiling the Future of Celestial Imaging Beyond Conventional Limits

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

astro-ph.IM

March 26, 2025

Filed under astro-ph.IM, astronomy, imaging, Spectroscopy, Stellar Cartography, telescope

Neuromorphic Cameras in Astronomy: Unveiling the Future of Celestial Imaging Beyond Conventional Limits — High dynamic range of neuromorphic camera: (a) Image of the Trapezium cluster formed by accumulating events in 200ms window from the neuromorphic camera with a slewing telescope, where red represents positive events and green indicates negative vents. (b) Optical image of the Trapezium star cluster observed through the Hubble Space Telescope [86]. (c) Image of Vega and a nearby faint star, ∼ 200′′ apart, demonstrating a dynamic range exceeding 100dB. (d) High dynamic imaging of star Betelgeuse, with a neighbouring faint star visible at roughly ∼ 170′′ distance. — astro-ph.IM

To deepen our understanding of optical astronomy, we must advance imaging technology to overcome conventional frame-based cameras’ limited dynamic range and temporal resolution. Our Perspective paper examines how neuromorphic cameras can effectively address these challenges.

Drawing inspiration from the human retina, neuromorphic cameras excel in speed and high dynamic range by utilizing asynchronous pixel operation and logarithmic photocurrent conversion, making them highly effective for celestial imaging.

We use 1300 mm terrestrial telescope to demonstrate the neuromorphic camera’s ability to simultaneously capture faint and bright celestial sources while preventing saturation effects.

We illustrate its photometric capabilities through aperture photometry of a star field with faint stars. Detection of the faint gas cloud structure of the Trapezium cluster during a full moon night highlights the camera’s high dynamic range, effectively mitigating static glare from lunar illumination.

Our investigations also include detecting meteorite passing near the Moon and Earth, as well as imaging satellites and anthropogenic debris with exceptionally high temporal resolution using a 200mm telescope. Our observations show the immense potential of neuromorphic cameras in advancing astronomical optical imaging and pushing the boundaries of observational astronomy.

Satyapreet Singh Yadav, Bikram Pradhan, Kenil Rajendrabhai Ajudiya, T. S. Kumar, Nirupam Roy, Andre Van Schaik, Chetan Singh Thakur

Comments: Optical astronomy, Neuromorphic camera, Photometry, Event-based, Asynchronous, High dynamic range, High temporal resolution, Meteorite imaging
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Emerging Technologies (cs.ET); Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE)
Cite as: arXiv:2503.15883 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2503.15883v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2503.15883
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Submission history
From: Satyapreet Singh Yadav
[v1] Thu, 20 Mar 2025 06:11:29 UTC (4,364 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.15883
Astrobiology, Astronomy, Stellar Cartography,

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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