Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for transaxial tomographic scanning of a patient. A scanning system is provided having a rotatably mounted X-ray radiation source/detector pair which orbits and radially scans the patient in the plane of orbit. The source provides a plurality of beams of radiation having axes in the orbital plane. The beams pass through the patient to an array of detectors each of which is aligned with one of the beams. Radiation intensity data is collected at predetermined orientations of each beam/detector pair as the assembly orbits about the patient. In a preferred embodiment the rotatably mounted source-detector pair is rotated as a unit through a preselected rotation angle .phi. about an axis effectively passing through the source. The axis and the source-detector pair connected to it are then orbited around the patient through an orbit angle .gamma. while maintaining the preselected rotation angle .phi.. The axis is orbited about an origin lying in the orbital plane.