On 28 Mar 2007 13:47:07 -0700, "Ben" wrote:

Let me take this opportunity to extend congrats and
kudos on your Pluto study which wound up on Spaceweather.
Really exciting data. Well done!

Thanks- it was a fun project (except for happening at 5am!)

With point sources you can beat the Raleigh limit
frequently.

Yes, although I wasn't looking at separated point sources on the image,
but fully resolved, multi-pixel structures. I also see slightly oblong
structures between one and two pixels in size (not what I'd call fully
resolved). That translates to something like 0.15 arcseconds, for which
even the most optimistic resolution definition is going to require more
than 16" aperture. Of course, it's possible as you suggest that at this
scale we're actually seeing artifacts of imaging through the window.
Hard to tell without seeing a higher resolution scan of the original
film.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com