Real-time compression and retrieval of astronomical images

Generation, update and retrieval of astronomical image databases demands for memory space in the order of Tera bytes and related bandwidth for data transmission. Astronomers hardly can predict, which information can be neglected without causing any interpretation mistakes or losses. This work compares some methods with respect to their run-time performance. Assessment is made on the basis of fidelity measurements of coded images. Tests on deviations in position and luminance information of stars in coded images show up the limits of an acceptable information loss