Tuesday, January 12, 2016

The masking effect of the sky scattering of visible light in daylight.


 Why the stars are not visible in daylight?
 The sky scattering of visible light is the reason, this scattering cause a masking effect not only in the stars but in any object located in the atmosphere, this effect not always block/mask completely the objects as in the stars but always decrease the clarity/contrast with what that object would be seen without that masking effect.
 This masking effect is lower in the infrared and even lower in the short radiowave section of the electromagnetic spectrum.


Why the use of IR filters is so effective in daylight?


Dual optical system tested with different cameras.


Dual optical system for nighttime observations.


Building an effective and cheap dual optical system.


 This describe a very affordable and easy to setup dual optical system using parts that can be find right away in Ebay for example.


Dual optical systems are the best tool for optical atmospheric observations.


The sky scattering of visible light in daylight produce a "masking effect" in any object located in the atmosphere or beyond, that effect is the one masking the stars in daylight and many relatively small objects in the atmosphere at not relatively high altitudes, the atmosphere is populated by many different objects and many of these objects are masked, not visible to naked eye as result of this masking effect of the sky scattering of visible light.
 This masking effect is lower in the red portion of the visible spectrum and even lower in the infrared or short radiowave segment of the electromagnetic spectrum.
 Dual optical systems exploit that fact by using a spotter/seeker section that work in the infrared or short radiowave(radar) and then a second section with high optical magnification that allow to resolve optically, in visible light, the structure details of the objects spotted with the spotter/seeker section, both sections are aligned as a telescope-viewfinder combination are aligned.