How pleasant to talk about astronomy, however briefly. That was a good explanation that Chuck gave. I'll add a few additional things. Light exists both as a wave or as a particle, depending on how you observe it and evaluate it. I believe that insofar as our perception of intensity, we're talking more the particle/photon aspect. The retina integrates the number of photons hitting it over a period of time and the visual cortex of the brain interprets this as intensity. The system you propose wouldn't change the total number of photons, so I'm guessing that your perception of intensity wouldn't change. For what it's worth, there are light-amplification eyepieces on the market. They work on the same principal as night-vision goggles. I suppose it's each to his own, but I've found them pretty yucky to look through. -----Original Message----- From: "Lambert, Aaron" <Aaron.Lambert@Williams.com> Sent: Aug 23, 2005 2:41 PM To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Telescope Theory I will start this off with another disclaimer. It has been several years since I took physics and I have not done much with the art of telescope making except for one small project that Chuck helped me with. On my way into work this morning (I ride the bus, so I get plenty of time to think), I came up with an idea. Again, this is based on ignorance, but hear me out and then shoot me down. :) I was pondering a way to increase the light-to-eye value for telescopes, ideally allowing a small scope to show the same detail only visible in a larger scope. I had thought previously about using some kind of device that captures light (like a CCD) and then duplicates it to enhance the image, but I do not think that would work, or it would be just like staring at a screen instead of letting the photons hit your eye. But let's say you could take a small tube (perhaps the size of a Barlow) and put a one-way light valve (mirror of some kind?) at the end coming from your scope and then have a reflective shutter at the eyepiece end which opened and closed several times per second. The light would enter the tube and have a 50% chance of reflecting twice before entering the eyepiece. The result (in my mind) would be that you would have alternating periods of no light reaching your eye and then double light. This would give an effect similar to watching a movie (one frame at a time) or looking through the slats of a fence while driving - your mind can still stitch the image together so it is cohesive. The question is, would it provide the desired effect of increasing the detail of what you can see? Is there anyone out there that can shed some light (pun intended) on this? Thanks, Aaron _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com