2 ms·
No, they happen for absolutely every externally-generated pixel of light (that is, not for shot noise, or firelflies that happen to fly between the mirrors). Wh
by IAmBroom 1y ago
No, they happen for absolutely every externally-generated pixel of light (that is, not for shot noise, or firelflies that happen to fly between the mirrors). Where objects subtend more than one pixel, each pixel will generate it's own diffraction patterns, and the superposition of all are present in the final image. Of course, each diffraction pattern is offset from the next, so they mostly just broaden (smear out), not intensify.
However, the brightness of the diffraction effects is much lower than the light of the focused image itself. Where the image is itself dim, the diffraction effects might not add up to anything noticeable. Where the image supersaturates the detector (as can happen with a 1-pixel-wide star), the "much lower" fraction of that intensity can still be annoyingly visible.
- aragilar 1y agoIt depends on the science you're doing as even these small effects add up, there's a project within the LSST science team (which a college is working on) to reduce this scattered light (search for "low surface brightness"), where there's a whole lot of work around modelling and understanding what effect the telescope system on the idealised single point that is a star. There are projects (dragonfly and huntsman are the ones I know of) which avoid using mirrors and instead use lenses (which have their own issues) to reduce this scattered light.