Re:Supersharp Images from New VLT Adaptive Optics
by eisstrom on Wednesday July 18, 2018 @08:17AM
(#17557609)
In this narrow-field mode of MUSE, the CCD detector can resolve 0.025 arcseconds per pixel (arcsecond is a weird unit for angles used in astronomy). At the current distance to Neptune (according to wolframalpha: about 30 au = 4.5 bn km), this corresponds to about 500 km/px.
Due to observing conditions, I think the real resolution was more like 0.07...0.08 arcseconds, so maybe it was 1000 to 2000 km/px.
I'm not sure if the focal length plays any role here. The resolution is usually limited by the telescope size (true for all telescopes, scales with 1/diameter) and atmospheric conditions (only relevant for ground based ones). At the distance of the moon (300,000 km), the physical resolution is 36 m/px and for the ISS (400 km) it is 5 cm/px.
If you want to play around with it, here's the formula:
length_still_resolved = angular_resolution * distance
The angular resolution is 1.2 * 10^-7 (= 0.025 arcseconds converted to radian), distance and length_still_resolved have the same units.
I'm not sure if the focal length plays any role here. The resolution is usually limited by the telescope size (true for all telescopes, scales with 1/diameter) and atmospheric conditions (only relevant for ground based ones). At the distance of the moon (300,000 km), the physical resolution is 36 m/px and for the ISS (400 km) it is 5 cm/px.
If you want to play around with it, here's the formula: length_still_resolved = angular_resolution * distance
The angular resolution is 1.2 * 10^-7 (= 0.025 arcseconds converted to radian), distance and length_still_resolved have the same units.