Resolving power of Telescope:

The telescope is widely used to view a distant object. The rsolving power of the
telescope is defined as the inverse of the least angle sutended at the objective by two distant
point objects which can be just distinguished as separate in the focal length.

Consider that the diameter of objective is a. If two objects subtend angle dθ at

objective, the objective gives two positions of central maxima at P 0 and P1. According to
Rayleigh, two images are said to be just resolved if the position of the central maxima of first
wavelength coincides with first minima of second wavelength and vice versa. The path
difference between secondary waves reaching P0 is zero, because these secondary waves
travel in the same direction as the incident waves.