Article View: sci.space
Article #7877Re: Satellites and diffraction limits
From: Robert Garwood
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1988 19:49
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1988 19:49
17 lines
1319 bytes
1319 bytes
In article <22587@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> tedrick@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Tom Tedrick) writes: >Here is an extract from "The Puzzle Palace" (James Bamford) > >page 259: " ... the Code 467 satellite, better known as Big Bird >... first launched on June 15, 1971 ... built around an extraordinary, >superhigh resolution camera capable of distinguishing objects eight >inches across from a height of ninety miles ... " Lets see, 8 inches from 90 miles corresponds to an angular size of 0.3 arc seconds. This is only a factor of 3 or so smaller than the best seeing of ground based astronomical telescopes and a factor of 4 to 5 larger than the diffration limit of a 2-m telescope at optical wavelengths. Seems reasonable to me. Bob Garwood Dept of Physics and Astronomy Univ. of Pittsburgh
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<6239@cisunx.UUCP>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!cadre!pitt!cisunx!bgarwoodReferences:
<22587@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!cadre!pitt!cisunx!bgarwood From: bgarwood@cisunx.UUCP (Robert Garwood) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.crypt Subject: Re: Satellites and diffraction limits Summary: Seems reasonable to me Message-ID: <6239@cisunx.UUCP> Date: 15 Jan 88 19:49:46 GMT References: <22587@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: bgarwood@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu.UUCP (Robert Garwood) Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys Lines: 17 Distribution: na