I asked RCOS once what the expected gain was from the Ion Milled optics which are to all practical purposes perfect. I was told the ion milling removed micro scratches from the polishing process and the gain was less light scatter.
Much like the gain from fluorite over FPL53. Minor but noticeable.
Less light scatter. This could mean slight improvements in contrast.
Greg.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alistairsam
Hi Clive,
So do you think it unlikely to yield any difference with details in areas with nebulosity, faint shadows and highlights or overall clarity?
you often read reports of visual observers noticing improved contrast, pinpoint stars etc with higher quality mirrors, I can't help but think it would be similar for imaging especially since the eye is far less sensitive to subtle variations in detail and if they're detectable by the eye, it might be more pronounced with a ccd? just guessing here.
I'm not sure of the details, but wasn't the initial flaw with the hubble mirror relatively minor but yielded dramatically inferior results? I guess the scale of that mirror is very different from what we're talking about here and could've been the contributing factor?
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