Quote:
Originally Posted by raymo
The brightness is not usually of much concern, as one can usually find a bright enough star to use. I think a more likely reason is that a Y configuration mask
would be much more flimsy, having only three asymmetrically arranged
points where the Y is attached to the outer frame; this would especially apply to larger apertures.
raymo
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I did think of this but then I also thought that the slits don't need to reach the absolute edge or centre just as the exitsing bhatinov pattern doesn't. The Y wouldn't be literal where all three slits would conjoin . Given there is more material left on the mask, my thoughts are that unless is was made out of a significantly heavy but thin material, the mask would maintain greater structural integrity with this pattern. This is when my therory moved to the fact that brighter defractions would introduce multiple defractions from other dimmer surrounding stars, hindering the focusing task.