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Remarks on the Restoration of Occultation Observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Terence J. Deeming
Terence J. Deeming *
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astronomy, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, U.S.A.

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If the limb of the Moon can be regarded as a straight edge, then the diffraction pattern of a point source which it produces at the distance of the Earth is the well known Fresnel diffraction pattern. Observations of stellar occultations reveal the variation of intensity with time as the diffraction pattern passes across the detector due to the orbital motion of the Moon and the rotation of the Earth. The linear scale of the diffraction pattern in monochromatic light depends on both the wavelength of observation, λ, and on the distance of the Moon, D, so that the scale is proportional to (λD)1/2.

References

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