1. A method for detecting targets within an image comprising: receiving image data; applying a gradient operator to determine gradient magnitude and direction of the pixels of said image data to produce gradient image data; skeletonizing the gradient image data to remove unnecessary detail to produce skeletonized image data representing the image primarily by the edges of the objects contained therein; applying atmospheric compensation to said gradient image data to adjust the skeletonized image data magnitudes in relationship to range; defining at least one target size box related to the expected target size in the image data; establishing a gradient threshold level under which the image data is determined to be unrelated to a target edge; thresholding the skeletonized image data by comparing the skeletonized image data magnitudes to said gradient threshold and producing simplified image data representative of edges of image elements when said skeletonized image data magnitude exceeds said gradient threshold determined in said step of establishing; and identifying candidate targets within said skeletonized image data by examining the number of different edge directions within the data defined by the target box size surrounding each pixel of each image data element of said simplified image data based on the number of directions of edge image data present in a region of said image.