Stargazing Telescope magnification

1. Sep 28, 2011

Marketo

The telescope magnification is given by the measure of the resolution power of the eye divided by the resolution power of the objetive lens. I just want to know why a magnification can be defined as the ratio of these two kinds of resolution, I need a justification of this statement.

2. Sep 28, 2011

xts

3. Sep 28, 2011

Marketo

Please check The physics book of Marcelo Alonso and Edward J. Finn in the chapter of geometry of waves when talking about telescope

4. Sep 28, 2011

xts

Ouch - you are sending me to a library having English science textbooks (it had not been translated to my language, so I won't get it in my local library)... Not this week...

5. Sep 28, 2011

JeffKoch

It is not defined this way, it is defined as the ratio of focal lengths of the telescope and the eyepiece. Resolving power is not a clearly defined concept unless you also state how you define resolving power, and in any case it makes no sense in this context. Either you misunderstood the text and did not look into it any farther, or the text is making some kind of analogy or stating how (I don't know how) the precisely defined number "magnification" can be stood in terms of resolving power of the two components. I also presume you meant "eyepiece" when your wrote "eye".