The Resolution Of A

Telescope
• The resolving power of a telescope is the
ability of the device to measure the
angular separation (θ) of the points in an
object.

θ
 Light From A Star
• Even the nearest stars are effectively point
sources of light because they are so
incredibly distant.( It may be considered a surprise that we
can produce an image of them at all!)

• The parallel light arriving through the

telescope aperture (or even the eye) is
subject to diffraction just like light passing
through a thin slit.
Diffraction Through a Circular Aperture
When light from a point source passes through a small circular
aperture, it does not produce a bright dot as an image, but rather
a diffuse circular disc known as Airy’s Disk (Astronomer Royal
Sir George Airy, 1835-1892). surrounded by much fainter
concentric circular rings. This example of diffraction is of great
importance because the eye and many optical instruments have
circular apertures

If this smearing of the image is larger than the smearing produced by aberration,
the resolution of a telescope ( effectively its ability to produce clear images) is
said to be diffraction limited
The size of the Airy disk is determined by the aperture of the telescope – the
larger the aperture, the smaller the Airy disk.
 Resolving individual images (The
Raleigh Criterion)
• Two stars may be so
close together that
they cannot be
resolved. (They may
lie within the same
Airy disk) One star or two?
• We can caluculate the
limit of resolution
using Raleigh’s
criterion
The Raleigh criterion states that two images are resolved when
the central peak of the second image coincides with the initial
minimum of the first image

More technically when the peak of the second point spread

function coincides with the trough of the first point spread
function

Central peaks coincide with minimums.

An empirical formula was given by Lord Raleigh


sin   1.220
D

θ is the angular separation of the

objects
λ is the wavelength of the light
entering the telescope
D is the diameter of the objective
lens or mirror

Effectively because the angles are small (the small angle approximation
is used) we can write:

 Do not get the D here mixed up

 with the D used as the symbol for
D lens power
Question from Paper 5 June 2006