by Chris Peterson » Mon Jun 07, 2010 2:06 pm
rstevenson wrote:I assume the central double vertical lines and the central single horizontal line are aberrations added by the optical setup. Are there any other extraneous lines or shapes in the image? (I'm just trying to get as clear an idea as possible as to what is physically out there and what is simply an artifact of the process used to get the picture.)
The horizontal and vertical lines coming off the central star are clearly diffraction spikes. There seems to be some scatter off the optics as well, seen as a sort of starburst effect around the star, most obvious above it. Otherwise, I don't think anything else could be described as an imaging artifact.
I imagine that we are looking at a pair of cones from the side, but like geckzilla says, it would be nice to be able to see this from a different angle.
[quote="rstevenson"]I assume the central double vertical lines and the central single horizontal line are aberrations added by the optical setup. Are there any other extraneous lines or shapes in the image? (I'm just trying to get as clear an idea as possible as to what is physically out there and what is simply an artifact of the process used to get the picture.)[/quote]
The horizontal and vertical lines coming off the central star are clearly diffraction spikes. There seems to be some scatter off the optics as well, seen as a sort of starburst effect around the star, most obvious above it. Otherwise, I don't think anything else could be described as an imaging artifact.
I imagine that we are looking at a pair of cones from the side, but like geckzilla says, it would be nice to be able to see this from a different angle.