A pattern of illumination caused by diffraction at the edge of a circular aperture, consisting of a central core of light surrounded by concentric rings of gradually decreasing intensity.
The circular diffraction image inside the first minimum of the point spread function.
The bright central part of the image of a star. It is surrounded by diffraction rings and its size is determined by the aperture of the telescope. About 85% of the light from the star should fall into the Airy disc.
A beam of light is diffracted when passing an aperture. If the aperture is a circular pinhole... More
An airy disc is the smallest image a microscope or telescope can make of a point source of light. Defraction as the light passes through the aperture causes the image of even a point source to have a finite size.
A measurement of the resolving capability of a lens expressing the diameter of the minimum spot size. Depends on lens, aperture and on the wavelength of passband radiation. (A.D. = 1.2 x lambda / A)
The apparent size of a star's disc produced by a perfect optical system.
Due to the wave nature of light, light passing through apertures is diffracted, and the diffraction increases with decreasing aperture size.