Pushing the limits
High-resolution planetary imaging is a challenging task
By CONRADO SERODIO
Guest Contributor
Nothing compares to a good night of observation , looking for some faint details of Saturn ’ s rings , a new outbreak in Jupiter ’ s rich and everchanging atmosphere or maybe following a sudden new disturbance in the GRS . But , amateur astronomers — and even professionals — are also willing , more and more , to keep a register , in a permanent way of what is observed , in order to study , to compare and to have as a testimony of a good astronomic night . The increasing availability of good telescopes , cameras , eyepieces and related items for amateur astrophotography has allowed many of us to improve our images of the planets of the solar system as well as those close-up images of the Moon features . Nowadays , many astrophotographers around the world are able to acquire outstanding images of the planets , with such a resolution that a decade ago was possible only to official observatories and quite more sophisticated and expensive equipment . At this point we must settle an important difference between planetary imaging and high-resolution planetary imaging . Some well-known specialists in this area already stated correctly that only the images that reach the limit of the resolution of a telescope can be considered as Hi-Res
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