DOCSLIB.ORG

All About Prime-Focus Imaging Capture Star Clusters, Nebulae, and Galaxies Using a Telescope As Your Camera’S Lens

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
All About Prime-Focus Imaging Capture Star Clusters, Nebulae, and Galaxies Using a Telescope As Your Camera’S Lens Astrophotography: part four All about prime-focus imaging Capture star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies using a telescope as your camera’s lens. by Michael A. Covington or many astronomy enthusiasts, north-south streaks. You’ll get stars elon- deep-sky imaging through a tele- gated east-west from periodic error in the Fscope marks the pinnacle of astro- drive’s gears. You can counteract this by photography. Amateurs today can image recording a set of corrections that the galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters and drive’s computer then plays back. get results that rival those from profes- The best way to make guiding cor- sional observatories. Best of all, some rections during exposures is to use an deep-sky objects are bright enough that autoguider. This can be a self-contained photographers can capture them under instrument or a software package (try modestly light-polluted skies. PHD Guiding, free from www.stark-labs. The techniques required for taking com) used with a webcam or planetary high-quality photos through a telescope video camera. The autoguider watches are similar to those for piggybacking (see a star and sends signals to the drive to my March 2011 article) but more exact- keep it centered. ing. You will need to build your skills This instrument can use a separate over time. The best way is to master guide scope piggybacked on the main piggybacking first. In both techniques, telescope. Alternatively, it can view the you use a digital single-lens reflex star through an off-axis guider, a gadget (DSLR) camera or a cooled CCD camera that uses a small mirror to pick off part to take a series of sub-exposures, each 2- of the main telescope’s image, out of the to 5-minutes long, then stack and process main camera’s field. The trouble with off- them with software such as Deep Sky axis guiding is that it can be difficult to Stacker (available for free from find a suitably placed star and a challenge http://deepskystacker.free.fr). The Southern Whirlpool Galaxy (M83) in Hydra has Tracking the stars bright spiral arms that wind out In prime-focus astrophotography, the from the ends of a bar rich in telescope both gathers light and magni- stars, gas, and dust. The imager fies the image. This means it has to track took this photo through a 24-inch RC Optical Systems the stars perfectly. That’s why experi- Ritchey-Chrétien telescope and enced imagers advise spending more an SBIG STL-11000 CCD camera money on the mount than on the tele- (LRGB image with exposures of scope itself. Get an equatorial mount so 210, 60, 60, and 60 minutes, the target keeps the same orientation in respectively). Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona your field of view as Earth rotates. Then accurately polar-align the mount as I The large, dim supernova described in my previous article. Polar- remnant CTB 1 in Cassiopeia alignment errors will turn stars into formed thousands of years ago when a massive star exploded. The imager took this photo The Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118) in Eridanus is through a 4-inch Takahashi FSQ- a reflection nebula that scatters light from the 106 refractor at f/5 and an SBIG bright bluish star Rigel (at top right). The imager STL-11000 CCD camera (HαRGB took this photo through a 4-inch Takahashi FSQ- image with exposures of 360, 106 refractor at f/5 and an SBIG STL-11000 CCD 60, 60, and 90 minutes, camera (RGB image with exposures of 90, 90, respectively). Steve Cannistra and 120 minutes, respectively). Jason Jennings 62 Astronomy© 2011 • May Kalmbach 2011 Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form www.Astronomy.com 63 without permission from the publisher. www.Astronomy.com Setting up the optics You can use the telescope either in prime- focus mode or with a compressor lens. Prime focus means you directly couple the camera to the scope — the camera takes the place of the eyepiece. The whole sys- tem’s f/ratio is that of the telescope itself. Because you need a bright image and low f/ratio for the best results, never use a Barlow lens to magnify the image. But you can go the opposite route. A com- pressor lens operates as sort of an anti- Barlow that makes the image smaller and brighter. If you reduce the image to 70 percent of its original size, you also cut the f/ratio to 70 percent of what it was — and the image brightness doubles. A compressor has other advantages. By shrinking the image scale, the image sen- sor covers a wider field in the sky. Under- stand that the compressor does not make your telescope into a wider-field instru- Globular cluster M22 in Sagittarius boasts hundreds of thousands of stars and ranks as the ment; it just shrinks the existing image. brightest such object visible from mid-northern latitudes. The imager took this photo through a But if the image started out bigger than 4-inch Tele Vue NP-101 refractor at f/5.4 and an SBIG ST-2000XM CCD camera (LRGB image with the sensor, more of it will fall on the sen- exposures of 64, 25, 25, and 25 minutes, respectively). Bernhard Hubl sor and end up in the final photo. A properly designed compressor also can correct off-axis aberrations. The pop- ular Meade and Celestron f/6.3 compres- sors for their f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes flatten the field considerably; The Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) is a giant stellar nursery in Cygnus. The imager took this photo through a 24-inch RC Optical Systems Ritchey-Chrétien telescope the telescope actually produces sharper and an SBIG STL-11000 CCD camera (LRGB image with exposures of 165, 50, 40, and 50 minutes, respectively). Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona images with the compressor than without. The compressor has to intercept the to get both the main camera and the light coming from the primary lens or autoguider into focus at the same time. mirror a considerable distance ahead of Autoguiding can correct for imperfec- the focal plane, so be sure to use a com- tions in the drive and in polar alignment, pressor designed specifically for your tele- but I find that tracking is seldom as scope. For it to work as intended, all the smooth with these corrections as it is distances have to be exact. A randomly when I don’t have to make corrections. chosen lens likely won’t even reach focus. That’s the reason many astroimagers What f/ratio should you aim for? I opt to do without it. Instead, they get a find somewhere around f/4 to f/6 works mount that tracks smoothly, they polar- well for most purposes. With bright glob- align carefully, and then they let the ular clusters and planetary nebulae, you mount do all the work. can get nice results at f/10 or even f/15. This technique is much less risky than At the other end of the scale, the Hyper- in the days of film photography because Star system from Starizona (http:// Dark nebula Barnard 22 in Taurus surrounds the emission nebula IC 2087 (center). The imager took you can view digital images almost starizona.com) and the earlier Celestron this photo through a 12-inch Astro Systeme Austria N2 astrograph at f/3.5 and an SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera (LRGB image with exposures of 300, 120, 120, and 120 minutes, respectively). Thomas V. Davis immediately to confirm you’re tracking Fastar system allow you to use your precisely. Instead of exposing for half an Schmidt-Cassegrain’s primary without hour at a time, expose for a couple the secondary as an f/2 system. With 15-second sub-exposures, which makes have it modified to extend its sensitivity of minutes and simply throw out poorly such super-fast speeds, you can take guiding much less critical. to red light. (Most DSLRs have a filter guided frames. If you go this route, that blocks infrared radiation to make choose an equatorial mount designed Longtime astroimager Michael A. Covington is Focus, focus, focus daytime color photos look realistic. The nearby dwarf galaxy Leo I glows dimly above the 1st-magnitude star Regulus. The imager specifically for astrophotography. It also a senior research scientist and associate director For through-the-telescope imaging, you Unfortunately, the filter also blocks took this photo through a 4-inch Tele Vue NP-101 refractor at f/5.4 and an SBIG ST-2000XM CCD helps if the mount has a polar-alignment of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the can use either a DSLR or a cooled CCD Hydrogen-alpha light — a major emis- camera (LRGB image with exposures of 336, 84, 42, and 42 minutes, respectively). Bernhard Hubl finder scope built into its polar axis. University of Georgia in Athens. camera. If it’s a DSLR, you may want to sion line in most bright nebulae.) 64 Astronomy • May 2011 www.Astronomy.com 65 The Perseus Cluster (Abell 426) contains thousands of galaxies and spans The Wild Duck Cluster (M11) in Scutum swarms with thousands of stars more than 1 million light-years. The imager took this photo through a and anchors a rich Milky Way field. The imager took this photo through 20-inch RC Optical Systems Ritchey-Chrétien reflector at f/8 and an SBIG a 5.2-inch Astro-Physics AP-160 StarFire EDF refractor at f/7.5 and an STL-11000 CCD camera (HαLRGB image with exposures of 435, 945, 180, SBIG ST-10XME CCD camera (LRGB image with 30 minutes of exposure 108, and 216 minutes, respectively).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Depth-Aware Blending of Smoothed Images for Bokeh Effect Generation
    1 Depth-aware Blending of Smoothed Images for Bokeh Effect Generation Saikat Duttaa,∗∗ aIndian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, PIN-600036, India ABSTRACT Bokeh effect is used in photography to capture images where the closer objects look sharp and every- thing else stays out-of-focus. Bokeh photos are generally captured using Single Lens Reflex cameras using shallow depth-of-field. Most of the modern smartphones can take bokeh images by leveraging dual rear cameras or a good auto-focus hardware. However, for smartphones with single-rear camera without a good auto-focus hardware, we have to rely on software to generate bokeh images. This kind of system is also useful to generate bokeh effect in already captured images. In this paper, an end-to-end deep learning framework is proposed to generate high-quality bokeh effect from images. The original image and different versions of smoothed images are blended to generate Bokeh effect with the help of a monocular depth estimation network. The proposed approach is compared against a saliency detection based baseline and a number of approaches proposed in AIM 2019 Challenge on Bokeh Effect Synthesis. Extensive experiments are shown in order to understand different parts of the proposed algorithm. The network is lightweight and can process an HD image in 0.03 seconds. This approach ranked second in AIM 2019 Bokeh effect challenge-Perceptual Track. 1. Introduction tant problem in Computer Vision and has gained attention re- cently. Most of the existing approaches(Shen et al., 2016; Wad- Depth-of-field effect or Bokeh effect is often used in photog- hwa et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2018) work on human portraits by raphy to generate aesthetic pictures.
    [Show full text]
  • Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, 1940-1973
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2p300278 No online items Inventory of the Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, 1940-1973 Processed by Ronald S. Brashear; machine-readable finding aid created by Gabriela A. Montoya Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2203 Fax: (626) 449-5720 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=554 © 1998 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection Inventory of the Ira Sprague 1 Bowen Papers, 1940-1973 Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection Inventory of the Ira Sprague Bowen Paper, 1940-1973 The Huntington Library San Marino, California Contact Information Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2203 Fax: (626) 449-5720 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=554 Processed by: Ronald S. Brashear Encoded by: Gabriela A. Montoya © 1998 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, Date (inclusive): 1940-1973 Creator: Bowen, Ira Sprague Extent: Approximately 29,000 pieces in 88 boxes Repository: The Huntington Library San Marino, California 91108 Language: English. Provenance Placed on permanent deposit in the Huntington Library by the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection. This was done in 1989 as part of a letter of agreement (dated November 5, 1987) between the Huntington and the Carnegie Observatories. The papers have yet to be officially accessioned. Cataloging of the papers was completed in 1989 prior to their transfer to the Huntington.
    [Show full text]
  • Telescopes and Binoculars
    Continuing Education Course Approved by the American Board of Opticianry Telescopes and Binoculars National Academy of Opticianry 8401 Corporate Drive #605 Landover, MD 20785 800-229-4828 phone 301-577-3880 fax www.nao.org Copyright© 2015 by the National Academy of Opticianry. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced without permission in writing from the publisher. 2 National Academy of Opticianry PREFACE: This continuing education course was prepared under the auspices of the National Academy of Opticianry and is designed to be convenient, cost effective and practical for the Optician. The skills and knowledge required to practice the profession of Opticianry will continue to change in the future as advances in technology are applied to the eye care specialty. Higher rates of obsolescence will result in an increased tempo of change as well as knowledge to meet these changes. The National Academy of Opticianry recognizes the need to provide a Continuing Education Program for all Opticians. This course has been developed as a part of the overall program to enable Opticians to develop and improve their technical knowledge and skills in their chosen profession. The National Academy of Opticianry INSTRUCTIONS: Read and study the material. After you feel that you understand the material thoroughly take the test following the instructions given at the beginning of the test. Upon completion of the test, mail the answer sheet to the National Academy of Opticianry, 8401 Corporate Drive, Suite 605, Landover, Maryland 20785 or fax it to 301-577-3880. Be sure you complete the evaluation form on the answer sheet.
    [Show full text]
  • The Microscope Parts And
    The Microscope ­ Parts and Use Name:_______________________ Period:______ Historians credit the invention of the compound microscope to the Dutch spectacle maker, Zacharias Janssen, around the year 1590. The compound microscope uses lenses and light to enlarge the image and is also called an optical or light microscope (vs./ an electron microscope). The simplest optical microscope is the magnifying glass and is good to about ten times (10X) magnification. The compound microscope has two systems of lenses for greater magnification, 1) the ocular, or eyepiece lens that one looks into and 2) the objective lens, or the lens closest to the object. Before purchasing or using a microscope, it is important to know the functions of each part. Eyepiece Lens: the lens at the top that you look through. They are usually 10X or 15X power. Tube: Connects the eyepiece to the objective lenses Arm: Supports the tube and connects it to the base. It is used along with the base to carry the microscope Base: The bottom of the microscope, used for support Illuminator: A steady light source (110 volts) used in place of a mirror. Stage: The flat platform where you place your slides. Stage clips hold the slides in place. Revolving Nosepiece or Turret: This is the part that holds two or more objective lenses and can be rotated to easily change power. Objective Lenses: Usually you will find 3 or 4 objective lenses on a microscope. They almost always consist of 4X, 10X, 40X and 100X powers. When coupled with a 10X (most common) eyepiece lens, we get total magnifications of 40X (4X times 10X), 100X , 400X and 1000X.
    [Show full text]
  • How Do the Lenses in a Microscope Work?
    Student Name: _____________________________ Date: _________________ How do the lenses in a microscope work? Compound Light Microscope: A compound light microscope uses light to ​ ​ transmit an image to your eye. Compound ​ deals with the microscope having more than one lens. Microscope is the ​ ​ combination of two words; "micro" meaning small and "scope" meaning view. Early microscopes, like Leeuwenhoek's, were called simple because they only had one lens. Simple scopes work like magnifying glasses that you have seen and/or used. These early microscopes had limitations to the amount of magnification no matter how they were constructed. The creation of the compound microscope by the Janssens helped to advance the field of microbiology light years ahead of where it had been only just a few years earlier. The Janssens added a second lens to magnify the image of the primary (or first) lens. Simple light microscopes of the past could magnify an object to 266X as in the case of Leeuwenhoek's microscope. Modern compound light microscopes, under optimal conditions, can magnify an object from 1000X to 2000X (times) the specimens original diameter. "The Compound Light Microscope." The Compound Light Microscope. Web. 16 Feb. 2017. ​ ​ http://www.cas.miamioh.edu/mbi-ws/microscopes/compoundscope.html Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 ​ International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. - 1 – Student Name: _____________________________ Date: _________________ Now we will describe how a microscope works in somewhat more detail. The first lens of a microscope is the one closest to the object being examined and, for this reason, is called the objective.
    [Show full text]
  • Binocular and Spotting Scope Basics
    Binocular and Spotting Scope Basics A good pair of binoculars is a must for most for bird monitoring projects. Certainly, you can observe birds and other wildlife without the aid of binoculars, such as at a feeder, but with them you will see more detail. Binoculars don't have to cost you a lot of money, but should adequately magnify birds for identification. Many 7 x 35 or 8 x 42 power binoculars are affordable and good for bird watching. They should be easy to use and comfortable for you. You can buy binoculars through sporting goods stores, catalogs, and the Internet. How to use binoculars Binoculars are an extension of your eyes. First, use your naked eye to find the birds you are observing. Once you have detected movement and can see the wildlife, use binoculars to see details of a bird’s “field marks.” Everyone’s eyes are different, so before you raise the binoculars, you must calibrate them for your eyes. How to Calibrate Binoculars 1. Binoculars hinge at the center between the two large “barrels,” allowing the eyepieces to fit the width of your eyes (Illustration A). Pivot the hinged barrels so you see a single circle-shaped image, rather than a double-image when looking through them. If the barrels are as close together as they go and you still see two images, you may need to find another pair. The distance between the eyepieces is called the “interpupillary distance.” It is too large if you see two images. The number on the hinge post (angle) will always be the same for your eyes, no matter which binocular you use (A).
    [Show full text]
  • Large Telescopes and Why We Need Them Transcript
    Large telescopes and why we need them Transcript Date: Wednesday, 9 May 2012 - 1:00PM Location: Museum of London 9 May 2012 Large Telescopes And Why we Need Them Professor Carolin Crawford Astronomy is a comparatively passive science, in that we can’t engage in laboratory experiments to investigate how the Universe works. To study any cosmic object outside of our Solar System, we can only work with the light it emits that happens to fall on Earth. How much we can interpret and understand about the Universe around us depends on how well we can collect and analyse that light. This talk is about the first part of that problem: how we improve the collection of light. The key problem for astronomers is that all stars, nebulae and galaxies are so very far away that they appear both very small, and very faint - some so much so that they can’t be seen without the help of a telescope. Its role is simply to collect more light than the unaided eye can, making astronomical sources appear both bigger and brighter, or even just to make most of them visible in the first place. A new generation of electronic detectors have made observations with the eye redundant. We now have cameras to record the images directly, or once it has been split into its constituent wavelengths by spectrographs. Even though there are a whole host of ingenious and complex instruments that enable us to record and analyse the light, they are still only able to work with the light they receive in the first place.
    [Show full text]
  • The Celestron Edgehd a Flexible Imaging Platform at an Affordable Price
    A FLEXIBLE IMAGING PLATFORM AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE Superior flat-field, coma-free imaging by the Celestron Engineering Team Ver. 04-2013, For release in April 2013. The Celestron EdgeHD A Flexible Imaging Platform at an Affordable Price By the Celestron Engineering Team ABSTRACT: The Celestron EdgeHD is an advanced, flat-field, aplanatic A skilled optician in a well-equipped optical shop can reliably series of telescopes designed for visual observation and imaging produce near-perfect spherical surfaces. Furthermore, by with astronomical CCD cameras and full-frame digital SLR comparing an optical surface against a matchplate—a precision cameras. This paper describes the development goals and reference surface—departures in both the radius and sphericity design decisions behind EdgeHD technology and their practical can be quickly assessed. realization in 8-, 9.25-, 11-, and 14-inch apertures. We include In forty years of manufacturing its classic Schmidt-Cassegrain cross-sections of the EdgeHD series, a table with visual and telescope, Celestron had fully mastered the art of making imaging specifications, and comparative spot diagrams for large numbers of essentially perfect spherical primary and the EdgeHD and competing “coma-free” Schmidt-Cassegrain secondary mirrors. designs. We also outline the construction and testing process for EdgeHD telescopes and provide instructions for placing sensors In addition, Celestron’s strengths included the production of at the optimum back-focus distance for astroimaging. Schmidt corrector plates. In the early 1970s, Tom Johnson, Celestron’s founder, perfected the necessary techniques. Before Johnson, corrector plates like that on the 48-inch 1. INTRODUCTION Schmidt camera on Palomar Mountain required many long The classic Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) manufactured hours of skilled work by master opticians.
    [Show full text]
  • Adaptive Optics in Laser Processing Patrick S
    Salter and Booth Light: Science & Applications (2019) 8:110 Official journal of the CIOMP 2047-7538 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0215-1 www.nature.com/lsa REVIEW ARTICLE Open Access Adaptive optics in laser processing Patrick S. Salter 1 and Martin J. Booth1 Abstract Adaptive optics are becoming a valuable tool for laser processing, providing enhanced functionality and flexibility for a range of systems. Using a single adaptive element, it is possible to correct for aberrations introduced when focusing inside the workpiece, tailor the focal intensity distribution for the particular fabrication task and/or provide parallelisation to reduce processing times. This is particularly promising for applications using ultrafast lasers for three- dimensional fabrication. We review recent developments in adaptive laser processing, including methods and applications, before discussing prospects for the future. Introduction enhance ultrafast DLW. An adaptive optical element Over the past two decades, direct laser writing (DLW) enables control over the fabrication laser beam and allows with ultrafast lasers has developed into a mature, diverse it to be dynamically updated during processing. Adaptive – and industrially relevant field1 5. The ultrashort nature of elements can modulate the phase, amplitude and/or the laser pulses means that energy can be delivered to the polarisation of the fabrication beam, providing many focus in a period shorter than the characteristic timescale possibilities for advanced control of the laser fabrication for thermal diffusion, leading to highly accurate material process. In this review, we briefly outline the application modification1. Thus, by focusing ultrashort pulses onto areas of AO for laser processing before considering the 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; the surface of the workpiece, precise cuts and holes can be methods of AO, including the range of adaptive elements manufactured with a minimal heat-affected zone.
    [Show full text]
  • A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography National Aeronautics and Space Administration A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography Dr. Sten Odenwald NASA Space Science Education Consortium Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland Cover designs and editing by Abbey Interrante Cover illustrations Front: Aurora (Elizabeth Macdonald), moon (Spencer Collins), star trails (Donald Noor), Orion nebula (Christian Harris), solar eclipse (Christopher Jones), Milky Way (Shun-Chia Yang), satellite streaks (Stanislav Kaniansky),sunspot (Michael Seeboerger-Weichselbaum),sun dogs (Billy Heather). Back: Milky Way (Gabriel Clark) Two front cover designs are provided with this book. To conserve toner, begin document printing with the second cover. This product is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement number NNH15ZDA004C. [1] Table of Contents Introduction.................................................................................................................................................... 5 How to use this book ..................................................................................................................................... 9 1.0 Light Pollution ....................................................................................................................................... 12 2.0 Cameras ................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • A Curriculum Guide
    FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY: A CURRICULUM GUIDE This page is an excerpt from Focus on Photography: A Curriculum Guide Written by Cynthia Way for the International Center of Photography © 2006 International Center of Photography All rights reserved. Published by the International Center of Photography, New York. Printed in the United States of America. Please credit the International Center of Photography on all reproductions. This project has been made possible with generous support from Andrew and Marina Lewin, the GE Fund, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Challenge Program. FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY: A CURRICULUM GUIDE PART IV Resources FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY: A CURRICULUM GUIDE This section is an excerpt from Focus on Photography: A Curriculum Guide Written by Cynthia Way for the International Center of Photography © 2006 International Center of Photography All rights reserved. Published by the International Center of Photography, New York. Printed in the United States of America. Please credit the International Center of Photography on all reproductions. This project has been made possible with generous support from Andrew and Marina Lewin, the GE Fund, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Challenge Program. FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY: A CURRICULUM GUIDE Focus Lesson Plans Fand Actvities INDEX TO FOCUS LINKS Focus Links Lesson Plans Focus Link 1 LESSON 1: Introductory Polaroid Exercises Focus Link 2 LESSON 2: Camera as a Tool Focus Link 3 LESSON 3: Photographic Field
    [Show full text]
  • A Theoretical and Practical Introduction to Optics a Theoretical and Practical Introduction to Optics
    White Paper A Theoretical and Practical Introduction to Optics A Theoretical and Practical Introduction to Optics Be honest: do you really know how to calculate the focal length of a lens? If so, you are an exception to the rule and can stop reading here !! For the rest of you, here is a second chance. Back to square one "Piece of broken glass starts forest fire"– a common headline during the summer. But how could this have happened? Due to the enormous distance between the Earth and the Sun, the Sun only appears as a tiny point emitting parallel rays of light (figure 1a) Should these parallel rays pass through a lens (or a piece of glass, which has similar characteristics) the rays would meet behind the lens at what is called the focal point. But what happens if our point of light is so near to the lens that we can not assume to have parallel rays of light? They cross each other behind the focal point (figure 1b). If we take a look at the image of our point of light at the focal points position we will see a unclear blurred spot. And so the question arises- "what is focusing?". Focusing is to increase the distance between the focal plane and the lens until the focal plane and the junction of the rays overlap each other (figure 1c). Thus, for single points of light the situation is quite simple. But what happens to the image of screws, PCBs or plates of steel? From points of light to images A point of light does not necessarily originate directly from the sun, candles or lamps, it can also result from a reflection.
    [Show full text]