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Astronomical optics

Because astronomoical sources are faint, we need to collect light. We use telescopes/cameras to make images of astronomical sources. Example: a 20th magnitude star gives $\sim 0.01 photons/s/cm^2$ at 5000 A through a 1000 A filter! However, using a 4m telescope gives 1200 photons/s.



Subsections

Rene Walterbos 2003-04-14