Sunday, 25 November 2012

telescope - Can angular information be known more precisely than the diffraction limit?

The diffraction limit deals with the ability to determine if two things are separate. I am interested in the ability to find the the centroid of a single object.



Imagine a star with no near neighbors would it be possible to determine the centroid of that star at a resolution higher than the diffraction limit?



The star is essentially a point source and I wonder if looking at the edges of the airy disk would allow a centroid to be determined if I had a magical camera with infinite pixels.



It seems to me that I should be able to see the disk and then calculate a centroid that is smaller than the airy disk.



Thanks for any help you can provide =)

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