RE: ATM 3-Vane or 4-Vane Spiders

[William Mc Hale <wmchal1@umbc.edu>]

On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, William Thornley wrote:

>
> Also, not having bothered to use an off-axis mask yet, what do to the spikes
> look like then? One would assume no spike at all!
>

Yep, there would be no spikes, but of course your aperature would be
limited to your unobstructed aperature.  Unless you are doing planetary
work and the atmosphere limits your seeing to such an extent that you gain
nothing by increasing aperature above the size of your aperature mask I
don't see much reason to use one.  I doubt I have ever seen one used on a
6-8" scope becuase at those sizes the resolution is not nearly as limited
by seeing.

Bill

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