The Milky Way Galaxy consists of about 100 to 400 billion stars, and the ultimate capability of viewing the discrete features of each one of them depends on its size and its distance from the person viewing it. Imagine yourself sitting at your window, peeking through the glass, and observing the night sky, which is sparkling like millions of diamonds.
You have ever wondered how these marvels look up-close? Can you point your fingers at its particular geometry? Are these heavenly objects shaped like an actual star or like the doughnut you eat on Sunday brunches? Are they shaped like the pentagon you drew on your exam or circular like the ball you played with? Let’s find out!
Why can we see the Sun, Moon, and other planets?
The mighty sun, which has a radius of about 696,340 kilometers, is by far the most significant element in the solar system and is so humungous that it occupies more than 99% of it. Even though it is about 151.92 million kilometers away from our Earth still its gigantic existence gives us an idea of its spherical shape.
Other than the sun, we are also able to view the Moon, not only during the night, but we can also see a faint outline during the day-time. Compared to the Sun, Moon only has a radius of about 1737.1 kilometers, but we can view it even with our bare eyes because it is no more than 384,400 kilometers away from our Earth and reflects sunlight all day long.
In comparison to the stars, the planets are at a much smaller distance from the Earth and reflect the sunlight, which makes it possible for us to see many other details like a ring or the color even when we are using an elementary telescope, at standard settings.
The accuracy of the highest-powered telescope?
It is the best time to be invested in celestial objects because scientists and astronomers all over the world are being recognized for their astounding efforts.
As of 2020, various high-powered telescopes like Gskyer 600x90mm AZ Astronomical Refractor Telescope, Gskyer 400mm AZ mount 70mm Aperture Telescope, Orion 09007 SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope and many more are popular and in demand.
Gskyer’s top-pick has the focal length of about 600mm and the aperture of about 90mm. It comes with three eyepieces 1- 120x, 2- 60x, 3- 24x, and a Barlow lens, which intensifies the power of magnification, allowing you to see details like Moon’s surfaces of some planets and rings of some other.
Why are stars only visible as points of light?
Although there are many brilliant shots of these stars, we are still left with plenty of questions on how they appear to be while examining them closely. The problem you face while viewing Stars is due to the diffraction pattern of the light waves.
The diffraction pattern plays a vital role in your vision of the celestial objects. Because of this phenomenon, all you can see is multiple concentric circles surrounding a bright and intense area that may appear as a circle.
The scientists have not yet been able to eliminate the effect of diffraction. The circular lens installed in the telescope, which also a mirror to reflect the light and provide a clear image of the celestial objects, encourage the effect and impact of the diffraction pattern.
All of these processes collectively lead to the creation of the image of the stars that appear no more than a pin-point source the emits intensely luminous light. This is why you cannot view stars as finely defined objects, unlike the Sun or the Moon.
Although the Astronomers have made multiple advancements in this field of science still are unable to view stars more than just mere undefined points of light. Mere decades ago, we barely had any idea about these celestial objects, but we should be hopeful considering the progress witnessed in the past few years.
The satellite images and Astronauts’ frequent visits to international space stations have given us an ample amount of compelling evidence that our vision of celestial objects is nothing like their actual appearance.
So, we may just be able to view stars as points of light even through the highest-powered telescopes, but it won’t be long before that you will be able to view celestial objects in their original form sitting at your home.
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