[pberrett]

Hi wonderful people

This question is for those more technically inclined.

I have been reading up on exposure, resolution and aperture. As I understand it in astrophotography aperture is king because a bigger telescope = more light = more saturated and detailed imaged (i.e > resolution).

This can be compensated for however. As an example take a 12" aperture telescope which takes an image with an exposure time of 10 seconds (all other things being equal and assuming one is tracking the object). If one only had a 6" telescope one could compensate by increasing the exposure time (I assume by a factor of 4 = (6^2/3^2) = relative difference in areas of telescope.

My question is whether in doing so one can achieve the same resolution image with the 6" telescope as was achieved with the 12" telescope or whether the use of a smaller telescope restricts the resolution in a way that can't be compensated by longer exposures.

Hoping someone can help.

Thanks Peter