Handling Large Images

This recipe gives some hints about reducing large images with CCDPACK (see SUN/139[10]). Starlink data reduction applications, such as CCDPACK, do not on the whole have formal limits on image size. However, reducing very large sets of data can make heavy demands on system resources, which can lead to long run times, degradation of the performance (especially interactive response time) of the machine being used, failure of the applications, or in extreme cases system crashes. Even if you are of a patient disposition, these effects could make you unpopular with other users, so it is worth giving some additional thought to this sort of work.