AIRY DIFFRACTION PATTERN

Circular aperture diffraction — Rayleigh criterion for resolving two stars

Rayleigh limit: -- arcsec
Airy radius: -- μm
Status: --
f-number: --
Airy disk: I(r) = [2J₁(πDr/λf) / (πDr/λf)]² where J₁ is the Bessel function of first kind. Rayleigh criterion: two point sources are just resolved when the central maximum of one falls on the first minimum of the other. First zero at r = 1.22λf/D → angular resolution θ = 1.22λ/D.