Understanding Resolution with Galileo’s Telescopes

Abstract

Using the context of Galileo Galilei´s pioneering observations of the Saturn's rings, the students are driven to build an optical telescope in the laboratory and analyze and discuss the different solutions to improve its resolution.1 The JavaOptics Course (JOptics) is an ensemble of Java applets and teaching resources for Physical Optics courses at university level for Physics of Optics and Optometry courses. The Course was developed by the members of the Optics and Photonics Research Group of the Applied Physics Department of the Universitat de Barcelona in the early 2000's thanks to three projects (DOGC-3453, 2003MQD-00138 and 11/III/MM-Eva/34/CARN) and the use of its resources for educational purposes is open and free. It consists of a series of 13 Java applets that covers all the topics of a Physical Optics course, from Geometrical Optics and Colorimetry, to Fourier Optics and Optical Tweezers.

Dealing with telescope magnification and resolution: recreating Galileo’s observations in the lab

“…For these reasons, in the master of photonics 9 taught in Barcelona (a master's degree with students from a myriad of backgrounds, ranging from BSc in physics to BSc in optometry, and different engineering degrees), an experimental laboratory work to offer students a hands-on experiment in geometrical optics, construction of optical instruments, resolution and aberrations was designed and offered as part of the syllabus of the compulsory course photonics laboratory from academic year 2013-2014 to 2018-2019. 10 This practical exercise to introduce advanced students (master's degree students) to aberrations, resolution, and optical design, among other disciplines related to real optical instruments, is presented in this article. Moreover, the work comprises a motivational historical background: the recreation of Galileo's early observations of Saturn's rings, for the purpose of showing an interesting and historically relevant situation where the resolution and performance of optical instruments at a particular moment in time played a key role in scientific discovery.…”