Re: Telescope resolution.


John Banister wrote:
> Is there a table or formula which gives the expected dimmest star (in
> magnitude, preferrably) that a particular aperture scope can resolve? I'm
> trying to find the dimmest star for a 10" F/4.7 and a 90mm F/13.
>
> Also, is it possible to resolve the Encke division of Saturn with a 10"
> Newt? I thought I could just see it last night in short moments of
> excellent seeing.
>
> Thanks.
>
> -John

Hi:

There are some broad guidelines out there, but, basically, magnitude
limits (as opposed to resolution) are very dependent on magnification,
sky quality, seeing, observer experience and other factors.

You may well have seen Encke's Minima, but probably not the gap itself.
The Minima is the relatively wide, dusky aldbedo feature in the A ring,
and is much easier to resolve than the actual (narrow, elusive, and
very-very difficult/impossible) Encke/Keeler Gap. There is a lot of
confusion about the naming of these features in the A ring, who saw
what, and who can see what. ;-)


Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
<http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm>

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user>

See: <http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/>
For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog.

.

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