Abstract: A system and a method for obtaining object data with a direct detection technique which employs radiation are disclosed. A set of radiation pulses are transmitted to an object area. A mechanical scan of the object area for returning pulses reflected off an object can be carried out for each pulse, so that each pulse is reflected onto a particular position of a light-sensitive array dependent upon the object distance and/or other data pertaining to the object. Alternatively, the scanning relative to each returning reflected pulse can be conducted by electrically scanning a radiation-sensitive array which comprises a CCD array having pixels. The scanning takes place relative to each pulse so that each returning reflected pulse strikes one or more pixels on the array so that the resulting signal reside at a position depending upon certain object data.

Abstract: A stellar tracking device for providing increased interpolation accuracy for locating the centroid of a stellar image on a charge transfer device (CTD) array. A beam splitter splits the beam from a star being tracked into two separate and distinct beams which are focused by a lens as separate images on the surface of the CTD array. The beam splitter and lens are configured so that the two beams are spatially phase shifted (interlaced) in each axis of the array by one half of a cycle of the transfer function of a group of pixels made up of individual CTD elements. By combining the signals derived from separate subsets of pixels associated with the two separate images, a more linear transfer function for interpolation of the centroid of the beam is achieved than can be obtained by using only a single image.