Article View: sci.space
Article #7898Re: satellites
From: Russ Cage
Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1988 11:32
Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1988 11:32
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In article <23760@cca.CCA.COM>, bobcoe@cca.UUCP writes: >I recall that at the time the 200-in. Hale (Palomar Mtn.) telescope was built, >it was reported that if it were not for the curvature of the earth and 3000 >miles of atmosphere, the telescope has the resolving power to read the date on >a dime in New York. Nope, can't be. Angular resolution is approximately lambda/D, which at 5 meters and 6000 Angstroms, is about 1.2e-7 radians for the Hale telescope. At 5 million meters distance, this corresponds to an object of .6 meters in size. You couldn't see the dime, much less read the details off it. (But it is a nice story even if not true.) -- The above are my own opinions and figures and I speak for RSI too, so there. (313) 662-4147 Will you come quietly, or must I use earplugs? Russ Cage, Robust Software Inc. crlt may vanish anytime; use this address: rsi@m-net
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arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!mordor!sri-spam!rutgers!super.upenn.edu!eecae!crlt!russReferences:
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!mordor!sri-spam!rutgers!super.upenn.edu!eecae!crlt!russ From: russ@crlt.UUCP (Russ Cage) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.crypt Subject: Re: satellites Message-ID: <1460@crlt.UUCP> Date: 3 Feb 88 11:32:52 GMT References: <873@uop.edu> <2166@umd5.umd.edu> <4910@well.UUCP> <1952@netsys.UUCP> <23760@cca.CCA.COM> Organization: CRLT , Ann Arbor, MI Lines: 15 Summary: Palomar telescope not that good!