The Antelope Valley Observatory

Hoping to pique the interest of all who enter in astronomy and the related sciences

Home

About Us

Astronomical Information

AINA 20 Inch Telescope Project

Links

Back

 

 Astronomy by the Letters (Dictionary)

Apparent Field; The Angular size of the field determined by the eyepiece thru the field stop

Aperture Gain; The proportional light gain of one objective to another. Take for example the eye versus an 8 inch telescope. The human eye has an aperture of approximately 7mm when dark adapted, an 8 inch telescope has approximately 200mm aperture 200/7=28.57 square that and you get 816.33, so an eight inch telescope gathers 816.33 times more light than the human eye.

Dawes Limit; The smallest theoretical resolving power of a telescope. For example an 8 inch telescope 4.56/8=.57 arc seconds

Exit Pupil; The image of the objective that is formed by the eyepiece. The size is determined by dividing the eyepiece focal length by the F# of the telescope. (as per the TeleVue Website)

Field Stop;    The metal ring inside an eyepiece that restricts the image size of the eyepiece.

Focal Ratio; The ratio of the focal length to the aperture. An 8 inch scope with an 80 inch focal length equal 10 or a focal ratio of F/10

True Field; The true size of an image viewed thru the telescope in degrees. (Apparent field/magnification or field stop/telescope focal length  x 57.3)

 

 

Home

Copyright 2008 - Terry Pedroza