Thread: The cone effect
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Old February 12th, 2008, 12:13 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Cosmic Charlie
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The cone effect

Hey all,

I searched and searched for an answer on this but to now avail, so thought maybe someone here would know. When I look at stars, the light coming off of them makes it look like a cone, but when I look at planets, there is no cone effect. They are just round. Saturn has a tiny little blur below it, but I'm hoping that's the atmosphere and not just my eyepiece or something (first time I've seen it was last night :).

Anyway, this cone shape of stars. Is it my telescope (reflector) or eyes pieces that are causing this? Is this really how they look magnified or is this an optical illusion of some sort? Just curious. Thanks in advanced for any response.

Cosmic Charlie