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Post: difference with webcams

Michael H.F. Wilkinson

difference with webcams 

In Boffins unveil sharpest ever stellar snaps

I think the difference with using webcams on moderate size (amateur) telescopes lies in th efact that the apperture of the Hale telescope is 200 inch. In small telescopes a major problem with "seeing", as the problems caused by atmospheric turbulence are called, is that the images "swim" or "hop" arround a bit in the field of view. This is far more easily corrected using realignment (or registration) software. Blur occurs too, and this is partly corrected by selection of the best frames e.g. 30 % of frames. In very large telescopes, "hopping" or 'swimming" is averaged out over the large aperture of the telescope, and blur is the main problem (in particular as their theoretical resolution limit is beter). This is harder to deal with.

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