A&A Supplement series, Vol. 129, April II 1998, 191-194

Received August 27; accepted September 4, 1997

On the effect of narrow-band filters on the diffraction limited resolution of astronomical telescopes

J.M. Beckers

Send offprint request: J.M. Beckers
National Solar Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85726/Sunspot, NM 88349, U.S.A.

Abstract:

Sometimes Fabry-Perot and other narrow-band filters are used for astronomical imaging in the so-called telecentric mode. In it the pupil is collimated through the filter, resulting in different incidence angles on the filter for rays coming from different parts of the objective. This results in variations of the central transmission wavelength, which broaden the effective filter bandpath. In addition each wavelength within this filter bandpath sees a different illumination of the pupil when viewed from behind the filter. This causes the diffraction limited point-spread-function to vary with wavelength. With the advent of diffraction limited imaging using adaptive optics, this can cause complications. In this note I examine the magnitude of this effect.

keywords: instrumentation: interferometers -- instrumentation: spectrographs -- techniques: interferometric

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Input parameters
• 3. Calculations
• 4. Results
• 5. Conclusion
• References