Ordinary Lens Are Detecting Extra-Solar Planets

[Speed]

Incredible what the technology is doing these days. With off the shelf, 200mm f1.8 lenses, astronomers are detecting planets around other stars! Here's a link to the story:

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1251_1.asp

[Lemming51]

EF 200 f/1.8L USM is "ordinary off the shelf lens"?

One man's floor is another man's ceiling, I guess. ;)

[Speed]

EF 200 f/1.8L USM is "ordinary off the shelf lens"?

One man's floor is another man's ceiling, I guess. ;)

They were reported in the article as being "An array of modest cameras, using lenses you can buy in a photo store,..."

I guess it's all relative. Compared to the 400 inch telescopes on Hawaii, these are "ordinary" lenses.

Would you call those CCD's "modest" cameras? Compared to the Hubble's ACS camera, I'm sure those CCD's are "modest".

It's all relative. However, you or I COULD go buy one of those lenses - if you have deep enough pockets. ;-)

[Chunk]

Incredible what the technology is doing these days. With off the shelf, 200mm f1.8 lenses, astronomers are detecting planets around other stars! Here's a link to the story:

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1251_1.asp

Thanks for posting this kind of info, Speed. When I read the article, I clicked on the photo to look at an enlarged photo. I thought it interesting that with the huge amount of stars showing (in just a 1 second exposure!!) that it looked more like a pattern of leathery grain with many stars appearing in lines rather than a more even dispersal .

I copied the photo into Paintshop pro to look at it further, trying to enhance or isolate those patterns. I was very surprised at what I saw when I applied the 'find edges' effect.

I also see the same effect in photoshop using the 'find edges' filter and even more pronounced with the 'glowing edges' filter.

What appears is a cross centered on the Great Orion nebula. The arms of the cross get wider with distance from the center. The first thing I thought of was lens flare, but this is kinda the inverse of lens flare.

These are large images and they get kinda messed up if I reduce their size to be posted here,so if you want to see the effect you will have to copy the pic and mess with it yourself.

I wonder if this is caused by the optics involved or if what is given as a single exposuer is instead a composite of 4 photos with the cross being areas of overlap.

What do you all think (Other than that I need to get a life)?

[paulnj]

$2200 on EBAY isn't "DEEP POCKETS" and I've seen them sell at 1400 WITH PERFECT GLASS, BUT CHIPPED PAINT.Cheaper than a 70-200F2.8IS....AND SHARPER TOO!!!!!!!!!

[SmartWombat]

I also see the same effect in photoshop using the 'find edges' filter and even more pronounced with the 'glowing edges' filter.

What appears is a cross centered on the Great Orion nebula. The arms of the cross get wider with distance from the center. The first thing I thought of was lens flare, but this is kinda the inverse of lens flare.

What do you all think (Other than that I need to get a life)?

Since the "camera" is an array of 4 lenses on 4 separate high gain CCD cameras it's almost certainly image overlap. You can see they're all set slightly outward from the central axis, I assume with slightly overlapping field of view. That would allow the checking of the calibration of the lenses and any post processing they might apply to adjust for any warp in the image (barrel or pincushion distortion) to give a square field.

[paulnj]

http://www.photodo.com/nav/prodindex.html HIGHEST RATED CANON LENS and it beats ALL LEICA LENSES TOO;) the olypus 250mm f2/ nikkor 300f2(neither rated) may be better or the same...BUT MF



old news to speed..http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/head...t27jan99_1.htm

[Speed]

http://www.photodo.com/nav/prodindex.html HIGHEST RATED CANON LENS and it beats ALL LEICA LENSES TOO;) the olypus 250mm f2/ nikkor 300f2(neither rated) may be better or the same...BUT MF



old news to speed..http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/head...t27jan99_1.htm

And you just had to one-up me, didn't you? :-)

[paulnj]

WELL....

TIS MY NATURE...... get it, i'm a nature oriented photo geek