Angular resolution Totally Explained

Everything about Angular Resolution totally explained

Angular resolution describes the resolving power of any image forming device such as an optical or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye.

Definition of terms

Resolving power is the ability of the components of an imaging device to measure the angular separation of the points in an object. The term resolution or minimum resolvable distance is the minimum distance between distinguishable objects in an image, although the term is loosely used by many users of microscopes and telescopes to describe resolving power. In scientific analysis the term "resolution" is generally used to describe the precision with which any instrument measures and records (in an image or spectrum) any variable in the specimen or sample under study.

Explanation

The resolving power of a lens is ultimately limited by diffraction (see Point Spread Function, Airy disc). The lens' aperture is analogous to a two-dimensional version of the single-slit experiment. Light passing through the lens interferes with itself creating a ring-shaped diffraction pattern, known as the Airy pattern, if the phase of the transmitted light is taken to be spherical over the exit aperture. The result is a blurring of the image. An empirical diffraction limit is given by the Rayleigh criterion invented by Lord Rayleigh:
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