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Old 28-03-2013, 04:00 PM
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Terry B
Country living & viewing

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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Armidale
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rmuhlack View Post
that is my understanding also. However for the hypothetical equipment setup I described, where both scopes are using cameras which give 1 arcsec per pixel, and both are operated under skies where seeing is limited to 2 arcsecs per pixel, is there any practical resolution gain from the larger aperture scope?

In fact on further thought, if the image scale is 1 arcsec per pixel for both, does it even matter what the seeing is? Even if the seeing was at 0.5 arcsec per pixel, if both scopes are using a camera which has an image scale of 1arcsec per pixel, then surely that is the resolution which is recorded ?
The image scale isn't the defining issue. As Ken states the size of the airy disc is. For your example probably the airy disc is smaller than the seeing but if you used an extreme example like a 30mm diam scope then the airy disc will be much greater than the seeing. If you still have 1 arcsec/pixel it just means you are oversampled and this isn't the resolution.
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